Rudra

Head canon it however you want. We engage in suspension of disbelief every time we play the game. The set requires more suspension than most, but again, that does not invalidate it.

Then you are intentionally making a false claim and I will no longer engage with you on this thread.

When your comment is: It ignores the Super Strength/Shield Defense pairing to give a biased view. Shield Charge is an offensive power that does damage. Rage enhances the accuracy and damage of all damaging powers the character uses while it is active. The only power in Battle Axe that does the same thing, and so would benefit Shield Charge, is Build Up. Against All Odds enhances all of Super Strength's attacks just as surely as Rage does for any damaging attack found anywhere in the character's array of powers. So the only way to have a fair comparison is to compare Rage to Build Up.

Some flaws in this comment: Shield Charge can be used with Battle Axe, yes. It can also be used with Super Strength. Rage boosts all damage done by the character. It has no flags itself or anywhere in the set that limits its bonuses to just Super Strength. So even Shield Charge will get boosted by it. Against All Odds is an armor power. You should really be comparing Rage to other attack buff powers like Build Up. And in that regard Build Up does have a downside: its short duration coupled with its long recharge.

As I said, it requires more suspension of disbelief. Doesn't make it not viable and I never said it did. Edit: To quote myself:

In various anime where they throw syringes for any reason, the momentum is what drives the plunger to inject the contents into the target. The needle hits the target first, penetrates the skin unless the target has hardened skin or has anything more resilient than cloth at the impact site, forward momentum is halted when the container hits the skin, and the plunger with its own momentum continues forward driving the liquid into the target. Realistic? Not at all. Realistic enough for a supers game though. I just don't see it working against most characters/NPCs because of their worn armors or hardened in some means flesh. Edit: Yes, I am fully aware that there are power sets that realistically shouldn't work on various mobs, but they should still work against a majority of mobs. Syringes on the other hand would fail against a majority of mobs. Not to say there isn't value in the proposed set and if the devs make it, okay. Just that there is more disbelief in this set that needs suspending than most.

It was your comment below that led to my response being the way it is. Edit: Oh, and yes, my Brute does have +accuracy and +ToHit global effects. +15% accuracy and +69.88% ToHit. And then there are the slotted enhancement bonuses for each of the powers. I have absolutely no difficulty hitting anything unless RNG tells me where I can stick my attacks.

Sure, works for me. Going for realism with the OP after all. Why wouldn't the pets kill the person that is trying to kill them off even if that person is supposed to be their boss or master? Mutinies and betrayals happen. Especially to callous leaders. Edit: For that matter, they can turn on each other for inflicting collateral harm on each other as well. Let's go for realism. Edit again: I am not saying realism is bad. Realism is actually necessary even in super games. Otherwise things wouldn't make sense and suspension of disbelief only goes so far. However, I am saying there is such a thing as too much realism.

It wouldn't come down to origin. Yes, there are characters that are immune to their own abilities. Whether it be magic, natural, science-made, tech-provided, or some form of mutation. To a point. However, there are just as many characters that are not immune to their own power effects, including among mutants. (It is most often the characters that can cover themselves in an effect or turn themselves into the effect that are immune. Cyclops is no more immune to his optic blasts than anyone else, he just isn't in a position to get hit by them. [Edit: Yes, he can clamp his eyes shut and prevent the blasts in the first place, but send them back at him somehow and he's going to be in a world of hurt.] Or another character whose name escapes me that basically blows himself up for being in the effect radius of his own attack, but he regenerates back to full health.) And when it comes to guns and explosives? Sorry, but no. The only way to be immune to those is to be some sort of damage resistant character. So all those /Devices Blasters and /Traps Corruptors placing trip mines at their feet are going to get blown up unless they get out of the blast radius. All those grenades various characters are tossing around? Are going to critically injure or kill them if they are in the blast radius. Not to mention what it will do to their pets and allies. Or what their pets and allies will do to them if they are caught in the area. I get your point, but it isn't origin based. And doesn't invalidate my own comment that if the OP's collateral damage is to be implemented, it should be implemented to full proper effect. Our AoE heals and buffs will also benefit our enemies. Our AoE attacks, mezzes, and debuffs will also hamper our team. And you can bet our pets will absolutely ruin everyone's day. Realism is good to have, but there is a reason why some things don't follow reality in video games.

The -1 difficulty setting currently does not work. It has already been reported as failing across the board and the devs have stated it is a priority they are working on fixing. (Edit: As reported on the "threat level bug" on this report's same page.)

Yeah, I don't proc bomb my powers. I slot the procs that give me the bonus I'm looking for or add a thematic trait I want for the character, but otherwise there aren't procs on my characters.

In the real world, our AoEs would be killing us and our teammates too. Every Judgement, every nuke, every Fireball, Rain of Fire, or other area attack, mez, or debuff would be harming us as well. So I tell you what, I will agree to your collateral damage proposal if all of our characters are also affected by all of our AoEs (damage, debuff, and mez) that we are in the radius of. After all, we shouldn't be running around using Hulk Smash tactics, right? Edit: Oh, right. And any AoE buffs we spam should also buff any enemies in the radius. After all, realism says a generally applied energy field affects everything in the radius. So if you have a FFG out and enemies are in its radius, their defense goes up too. Got a Spirit Tree out and enemies move in range? It should heal them just like CoT healing crystals heal the mobs and us. You throw an AoE heal to save yourself and your pets? It will heal any enemies in its radius too.

Seriously? I can hit anything I want even if I am running at +5. (Though I run that Brute at +4 still.) Since when is Rage necessary just to hit things now? And by fine I mean I take my Brute into the mission and I beat the mobs into the ground until I clear the mission. Yeah, I know I'm not getting the DPS I would if I were to use Rage, but not using Rage does not make it impossible, or even difficult, to hit enemies any more than any other power set.

Invisible obstruction: Zone/Mission: V_OUTDOOR_BRICKSTOWN_ZIG Position: [-2526.0 -15.0 39.0] Even standing on the cement, you can't move west onto the ground below you. You have to move south to Zone/Mission: V_OUTDOOR_BRICKSTOWN_ZIG Position: [-2527.2 -15.0 49.5] in order to get around the obstruction. Moving east and not being able to get up on the block, having movement impeded, makes sense because the cement block is higher than character stepping height. Though at least you should still be able to jump up on the cement. Edit: The obstruction is extremely narrow, like a sewer rail. You can jump on it, but then you are stuck in jumping animation as the game moves you to the side to fall off.

Overwhelming Force can also be bought with Reward Merits. That should help with your pitch for the recommended build.

Just so long as it is changed to only those characters that interact with it to check anything. I personally do not want to be a Pocket D hologram on a race for badges. I don't want to have anything to do with leaderboards.

You're right, that is a ridiculous example. And you really don't want me answering it anyway. Because depending on what other powers I pick for my character, odds are very good I will probably incorporate both. I'm fine with having irregular attack chains. I have characters right now that effectively chain two different attack chains together in an extended chain. (Edit: A working attack chain and a broken attack chain that can use the working one as part of the cycle.) (Also, remember that I am the player that still includes the T1 and T2 attacks in the attack chain even as a level 50+3 doing incarnate content unless I'm on a VEAT. And the VEATs only differ because I move away from the base class the VEATs start with most times.) Anyway, I understand the preference for looking at damage versus animation time since a chain will keep the powers firing back-to-back, I just don't understand why DPS would suddenly no longer be a desirable metric since the recharge is still a factor in building said chain.

That doesn't seem right to me. If a power set is looked at from all the powers' DPS, then a specific attack chain doesn't matter for comparison. Because all powers can only be used as fast as they recharge, an attack chain can only be built from attacks timing in fast enough to link together, I would think DPS for each attack would be more important when comparing sets rather than less important.

Why aren't you using DPS? The attack's damage in relation to how often you can use it. Wouldn't that be a better indicator?

Can you clarify something for me? When you say DPA, are you just looking at the damage when you click the power?

I would agree if all other indicators didn't disagree. With lag, the mob doesn't react to my current position, doesn't turn to look at me as I move to either side or away, just goes to where the game thinks I am regardless of where I moved to. The Longbow Nullifier turned to counter my sideways movement as I backpedaled constantly, always moving to where I had moved to, rather than where lag would have left me. With lag, if my position does not match where the server thinks I am because I moved, I get yanked back to where the game thinks I am when it corrects itself. The whole rubberbanding effect of not being able to move without finding yourself back where you last were because that is where the game thinks you are. I never got yanked back anywhere. My movement wasn't disrupted by loss of data packets, my position wasn't being shifted other than by my movement inputs, my attacks weren't lost to lost data packets, the Longbow Nullifier didn't jerkily teleport as the game tries to correct itself, and except for that single out of range melee attack, the Longbow Nullifier did not launch any other out of range melee attacks.

5 feet is 1/3 of 15 feet. Edit: I'm used to melee attacks hitting me from even 7 feet away. That Longbow Nullifer was at least twice that melee cone distance away.

So I'm doing the "Breakout at the Zig" arc from Operative Wellman and the first mission has me go into a Longbow base to steal their list. Not a problem. I'm still unslotted for any enhancements, so I'm taking my time and above all else, keeping my distance as best I can. When a +1 Longbow Nullifier moves to engage me in melee about halfway through the mission. Well, I don't want to be in melee with him, let alone take the hit, so as soon as that Longbow Nullifier starts closing with me to closer than my Heavy Burst max range, I start backpedaling. And then something weird happened.... The Longbow Nullifier did not reach me, but he animated his Rifle Butt attack anyway and smacked me from at least 15 feet away. I made sure he didn't get close to me, but he still launched and connected with the attack. No evidence of lag to say the game thought I hadn't moved. The Longbow Nullifier was turning to track my movements all the time, there was no rubberbanding, I didn't suddenly teleport back to the Longbow Nullifier as the game corrected itself. Just from at least 15 feet away, the Longbow Nullifier does a melee attack that connects. (I dropped him before he did anything else weird like that. And so far, he is the only enemy that did that.)

Point made. I will do my best to not treat hardline absolutes as such. (Even if they make me want to scream and break something each time they come up.)

And as I already stated, if people don't use hardline absolutes like everyone is forced to take a specific power, I'm just a spectator. Some people like Rage. Some people don't. I don't use Rage except in emergencies, just like I don't use Build Up except in emergencies. Argue all the numbers. Argue all the opinions. Just don't claim anyone is forced to take Rage, because even without Rage, Super Strength still gets the job done at max difficulty. I was fine with the Unleashed Might versus Rage discussion until the forced comment which even stated that Rage was necessary to get usable numbers. Without that? I'd have stayed out of it other than the clarification comments I was already making.