Erratic1

As I recall, CoH came out the same year, though a bit earlier, as WoW. You can use a voice program while playing CoH. My friends and I did back in the day. But the content is not so hard it is necessary and I am not seeing how forming is aided in CoH or any other mmo by voice being available. Typically there are in-game methods of being paired and that is what happens in CoH. As for actually playing the content, again, someone calling out dangers or calling for certain roles to do something at a specific time is not the nature of the fights in CoH. So while you can certainly hang out in a Discord channel and have fun, quite frankly I type fast enough that for the most part any communication I need to relay (or jokes more likely) can be done while fighting. And that negates the need to communicate what channel and use a program (which I admittedly have installed and running all the time, but that is me...other people are different).

I ran a DM/Elec brute back on Live. Give yourself some time and he will get there, even on SOs.

Bio is a perfectly wonderful set. But having an SS/Bio Brute already, I was not wanting to go over ground I had already covered.

My Energy Melee/Shield Stalker is the first Stalker I've had that excites me to play. It is non-stop, "Let's see who should be defeated...how about you...then you...then you!"

Water Blast works well with Kinetics...very well.

Kaboom.mp4

You could do something like this, depending on what you're willing to exchange for better Psi defenses: | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1450;661;1322;HEX;| |78DA6594596FD34010C7D7B14368EE3457AF348DDBDC605224DE11943ED086468A0| |48F51946E12232B897208F816D016F1C2D17248E5FA163CF3CECD17A04502C4F112| |269E59C5504BCECFF35FFF776767D6295E5F71D7EBAB6799E43A6F547BBDCAB9EEA| |0CF1DE59ACE5B352E33B81C70CF9872A5C80DCEB5F2A0C3BB9572BFCB5B8D7E338A| |432BBCCE5B3DAE5DD10DA3D3BEC6BBCC536AB70D6D556F34FB7AABE134A37287F34| |DB7F9B8CEAB1DD07D22D8E4DD5E53EF442F74F49A867396DB03A352ACF6FABC7B63| |0AB248C1AD4AF033BA191BDAD94D85B16585D96E11B790CA36710779EC36F20DB39| |A93F09486C10CF278967806E95C62A6497011644998A55DD914DD7BC48748EF23E2| |63A4FF09F22DB8646196BFCBE60AFE1FC8C99FC45FF872E8377286327A072E3B999| |9FD228AA3EC1D6246871B3718F220235EA20F39E5270690EFC1354166692224E172| |61A40D3AEE62B49C6B08179341F288C53CF398C15C9C9840CEABC4D3987E3A0A710| |CBA00661F99159F1F17990F201782444A62819250C114A024A4401E5B9020A6E19D| |2076722805FF1BFC008049CC417B780DA74BAC23178BC44BC40DE45209F9115C51C| |AD516BD63C3C12DE2363202B94D8B0D4D7FC3DDA60E8887C435AA026DE813BC3D2B| |4A3E4BBB158301983126668C5189B254A22C95284BA61C9926C114177D8A2770F7A| |323A38A4EA977B1DDB97BC4FBC8130F88BBC43D640D524E0A73721FC5934F89CF88| |CF91DA0BE24BE4E8DF2223D2C998C7260A19E6859437A5CFF0AC094933A514AC582| |0492E34B1C6059D7815B96C205795F1273C9C5398B886A318265B3F2A9514E10049| |32A52FCEF1B74CD2C151E9F01FE93256FDAB4594243A19A7E8A4FC89004476D3214| |BF03A6809BC614BB0631DD9572DC1ABDCB87CC3BF5507E0FA| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

You've just solidly defeated your previous opponent in the death match held at Golden Giza and because you won you are given the option of who you face next, Hammerhands, who hits 33% harder than the guy you just fought, or Flashfists, who strikes 33% more often. Which do you choose? Attacking faster is adding more damage over time just like hitting harder does.

Just be sure this does not cause you to rage since afterwards you will be useless during your crash.

So what percentage of people actively participating on the forums know that? From time to time while playing the game I run into someone and the conversation turns to builds. At that point I tend to ask if the person is on the forums. Of all the times I have asked, I have only ever -=*ONCE*=- had someone respond they use the forums. And I know the friends I had who came to the game when Homecoming opened to the public never used the forums beyond the necessity of registering so they could get and account and get into the game. So somebody offering something in a thread? Not something a lot of people are going to know about.

Yep. Had a brief bit of regret Energy Melee was not in its current state when I made my SS/Bio brute. But then I took a quick look at Energy Melee (which I like...really enjoy my EM/Shield Stalker) but Whirling Hands is no Foot Stomp and I would have to use Focused Accuracy to enjoy the same security in hitting higher level targets. And it makes sense. Your target starts dodging your attacks, you get pissed, and you RAGE!!!!!!

What is work for YOU may be very different from what is work for someone else. I am not sure how one makes it through a life without coming to appreciate different people have different tolerances.

I'd rather watch paint dry, or go fishing than farm. Crafting is slightly more tolerable. Of course I am not poor either, even if I am not rolling in enough spare influence to kite out a dozen characters. I merely appreciate that people play the game in a variety of ways and some of those ways are not going to generate influence willy-nilly.

I don't know...sounds like the same argument is being applied in game that is applied in real life....something about not working hard enough.

Now you're assuming the amount of time they spend on their higher level characters and how much of what that character generates is spare to spend on other characters.

Assumption of influence that many people don't wallow in. Also a question of knowing you'll like the character enough to know you want to invest in them at that level. I have characters I have soured on for other reasons at double that level.

Part of that is because if you're still experiencing endurance problems as you near 50, even on SOs, people drop the character. Unless you're hardheaded like me.

To be fair it was a tradeoff. A bit of a trim from max potential but an increase in ease of maintaining Fury.

Tankers had their damage dealing capabilities increased, Brutes had theirs decreased. Have you checked the Trapdoor thread and seen some of the times Tankers are managing? I admit I sometimes wish for half the modifier Tankers get on their defensive set powers. Not because Brutes have a hard time surviving with a proper build as is, but so that fewer slots had to be plowed into getting that survivability and more could be dedicated to damage. But that's probably being greedy. Let's invert that...What role do Brutes play which is not better served by a Tanker or Scrapper? Well you have been sparking flint in ground left burned from the last great Brute/Tanker Confrontation. 😁

Bio generates endurance (in Efficient stance it does even more) and Shield is not particularly endurance hungry. Nothing slurps down endurance like Dark Armor as goes secondary powersets. But if you want true misery, you could go Rad Melee/ Dark Armor. *shudder*

I am not looking at pushing more than S/L resistance. Fire/Cold could probably be pushed to an equivalent place but the tradeoffs would not be worth it.

Tankers get higher returns on their protective powersets than do other melee ATs so pushing towards capping both defense and resistance is considerably less work for them.

I have never really noticed SS being endurance intensive. But then I have it paired with Bio and generally play in Efficient stance.

Crafting level 25 basic IOs will save you a very nice chunk of influence over the course of leveling a character to 50. I used to do level 30 basics but then realized there was not that much difference in effectiveness between 25s and 30s and of course you can get into 25s 5 levels sooner. Because they do not expire like generic SOs do you never pay to upgrade them as your character levels. If you really want to save going forward, when you get around to replacing them (with set IOs or simply higher level generics once you reach 50) you can use a respec to unslot all your enhacements (and let's face it, you probably will want to reconfigure your power/slotting choices once you hit 50 anyway) and either keep them in your character inventory/mail/guild storage for future characters to use.

I play a mix of solo and group and am not too worried about Pylons beyond survivability. And while I will not deny a certain joy at the scale of the numbers thrown around by either my DM/EA scrapper or EM/Shield Stalker, there is quite a bit of joy wading into a crowd with the SS/Bio or Elec/Stone brutes and hurting everything nearby. The question really is how reasonable it is to forgo the higher resistance cap Brutes offer when playing a Defense secondary.