Rudra

I'm not going to run off people's avatars. If you say you are male or female, I will endeavor to remember. (No promises on how well I will remember though.) "They" as a pronoun is also currently associated with those who do not identify with a specific gender. So for me to use that pronoun is to imply you are one of those individuals. Simpler for me to use (s)he. If this displeases you, I apologize. As for the rest? As a villain character, from the moment your character is created unless you skip the tutorial, you are a pawn of Arachnos. They break you out of the Zig to use as a pawn to ensure Recluse's ultimate victory. You are free to not be a pawn as you see fit. For instance, you do not have to do the new arcs where the Arachnos agent uses you to drive out Longbow. Skip the tutorial, and you aren't een introduced to him unless you walk up to him and say hi. The Arachnos-Longbow bit is very much the same thing as the Horde-Alliance bit. Except you the player are not bound to play through the content that uses you as a pawn in their conflict if you don't want. Or play through the content and head canon that you are doing something that benefits you in doing so or are acting to do something else and the mission is just your cover. Or play through and be that pawn for either side. Or play through and don't care. Whatever you want to do. If you want the current Mercy Island story to be changed so you start from Fort Darwin? Propose a new story that moves forward from that point. Or just ask for the devs to come up with one and progress the story to after Longbow's defeat. If you just want to run around original Mercy Island (and are fine with no contacts or missions), then ask for an echo of the original zone to be brought back. If you don't want to ask in broadcast for someone to drop you a portal to Ouroboros to reach the Mercy Island echo zone (if it is put in), then ask for a means of accessing the echo zones without having to go to Ourobors first. What you won't get though is two versions of a single zone with all its contacts, missions, or arcs at the same time. At least, I don't expect that will ever happen.

I say (s)he because it is shorthand for she or he. I don't presume to know anyone's gender. I'm not going to justify what the Live devs did. I'm just giving the reasons I see it working. Notwithstanding individuals' displeasure with the situation, it does make sense. It may cause the US to go "Okay. You invaded. We're retaliating.", but given how Arachnos operates, it does not preclude them doing what they did in Faultline. For all intents and purposes, Faultline was abandoned. That's why there was such a large Clockwork presence there running unchecked. That is why there was such a large Vahzilok presence there running unchecked. Because like with the Praetorian invasion which saw no military assets assigned to deal with an entire dimension looking to invade and wipe out any resistance in Primal Earth, it was assumed for whatever reason that 'the heroes will handle it'. Or Longbow will handle it. Or Vanguard will handle it. Realistically speaking, all the current version of Faultline did was move Arachnos operations out into the open. There are Arachnos safehouses and bases and lairs scattered all over Paragon City. Just with Faultline, it was not contested by Longbow, or the PPD, or even the heroes to any real extent, so Arachnos would be able to fortify their position. And because they did so as part of the search for the psychochronometron or whatever it is called, they started operating openly and now they have to be driven out. I see you complain about Arachnos being in force in Faultline, but what about the Sky Raiders? An independent mercenary force known to have betrayed their US military origins to engage in global terrorism and piracy has established a base of no small size in Faultline as well. You only comment about Arachnos though. Why isn't the military hunting down the Sky Raiders? Or why is their presence in less need of your commentary in Faultline than Arachnos? We can go back and forth about Longbow in Mercy and Arachnos in Faultline. And to be clear, I would vastly prefer not to. That would just be an argument, and I would rather avoid it. Longbow is dealt with in Mercy Island as part of the Mercy Island arcs made available when the new version of the map was released. Arachnos has their position at the very least compromised by hero activity as part of the Faultline arcs. Given what is known about Longbow and their actually illegal in US and UN eyes activities, or Arachnos with their flagrant illegal activities despite their current politically acknowledged existence, the Warburg situation, and the availability of Arachnos drones, fliers, Arachnoids, Praetorian technology Warworks, the loyal supers in Arachnos, and the ability to be leveraged Destined Ones; what happened still makes sense. And the US would not launch an open attack on Arachnos for their activities without requisite Longbow and hero support. Or at least NATO or the UN backing them. (Edit: That is how the game world is set up. The heroes are the main actors, not the government.) And the military can not actually directly call on the heroes (or Longbow) themselves. Which is why the Malta group exists. Mercy Island has been invaded by Longbow. Longbow controls Fort Darwin. Longbow has a foothold in Mercy City. And your aspiring villain is recruited into driving Longbow out of Mercy Island. First by eliminating their presence in Mercy City. Then by destroying their still being received and positioned supplies, then by striking at their allies to isolate them, then by finally driving longbow out of Fort Darwin. A progression that makes perfect sense. And sets up the possibility of an updated Mercy Island with whole new content added that lets villains start at a fort with no actual defenses. Faultline has been invaded. And that is revealed by the new presence of Longbow and PPD as part of the rebuilding process. Arachnos' position is made exploitable by the actions of a hero exploring the lost history of the zone, and their primary facility is destroyed. A less profound progression than Mercy Island, but one that still leaves open the way to further rebuild the destroyed zone which is in development, and also gives an opening to remove the Arachnos presence. There are a multitude of events in the game that no nation in the real world would ignore. Armies, navies, and air forces the world over would be mobilized to prepare for and deal with the Praetorian invasion. They would be mobilized to contain the Devouring Earth threat, particularly the Hamidon. They would be mobilized to deal with the Sky Raiders as a force. They would be mobilized to deal with Mot and the Banished Pantheon. The Vahzilok would never be able to become as large an organization operating in the public's view the way they are. The Hellions and Skulls would be rounded up, their numbers cut drastically. The entire game handwaves away national responses to national and international problems because it is a game about supers and it is the players that are supposed to be effecting the major changes. (Edit: And even when there is a military force present and involved? They are summarily rolled up by whatever faction in the game they are opposing. See the Sutter TF as the main example I can remember. Also the Rula-Wade bit. Where is the US Air Force when the Sky Raiders are strafing the characters on US soil with stolen prototype US fighters?)

The thing about Longbow being allowed to make headway in the Isles is the same thing about Arachnos being able to make headway in Paragon. Arachnos has had myriad plans in work to conquer Paragon City. Longbow has had myriad plans to clean up the Isles. Even when the Praetorians were a major threat, both Longbow and Arachnos kept up their plans to deal with the other. The only time Longbow and Arachnos work together, is when they work with Vanguard, the Goldbrickers, the Luddites, and every other faction in the game to survive Mot. And even then, they aren't working together, just keeping to their own to fight Mot's forces. (Edit: Praetoria is such a major threat that no one works with anyone else to deal with them except for Vanguard.) As for the player character being special? The player character is one of apparently hundreds of characters that might be the Destined One. Kalinda has no clue who the Destined One really is, just who might have the ability to fulfill her vision. That was even true before the VEATs were introduced and the player Arachnos forces the list to actually change and include him/her as a possible Destined One. It isn't until late game where the player character has proven himself/herself/itself as truly special from among the literal army of villains designated as Destined that the player character is finally marked as "special". As for Fort Darwin, even before the Longbow invasion of Mercy was made in the game, I was always left marveling at how vulnerable the fort was. It had no perimeter defenses. It's main entrance was a massive walkway right into the heart of the fort. It lacked any sizable force to defend it and was too small to even accomodate a sizable force. Even when your character infiltrates it to take it back from Longbow and you make your way through the interior, as accessed by an unguarded door at the back of the fort, the fort is tiny. It is barely an outpost. As opposed to Mercy City with its massive encircling walls, multiple Arachnos fliers stationed there, and its larger troop presence. So of course Fort Darwin falls. (Also, I don't recall Fort Darwin ever being flagged as an important location for Arachnos. Mercy Island was basically the island Arachnos barely gave a crap about. Losing Cap au Diable, or Nerva Archipelago, or especially Grandville would have marked Recluse as too weak to lead Arachnos. That is why Longbow has such a large presence contesting Nerva and launches the same offensve they used on Mercy against Cap au Diable.) As for the US military steamrolling Arachnos? It is mentioned at multiple points in the game just how much more powerful than any nation's military Arachnos is. Arachnos is held in check by specialized forces built up specifically to deal with super villainous threats (Longbow, who routinely fails to do so) and by the heroes. As for Arachnos having a beachhead position in Faultline? Faultline had no Longbow presence, being an abandoned zone held by Clockwork, Vahzilok, and I don't remember what other factions. It was a sealed off hazard zone. The city finally started rebuilding and has both a Longbow and hero presence again, but in the time it took them to get their foothold in Faultline, who is to say Arachnos didn't beat them into the unwatched zone? So now Arachnos has to be driven out of the zone. Which is part of what the character embarks on as part of the new Faultline zone's arcs. So here is the problem I have with the OP. The OP wants to take established story and just throw it out. Forget everything happened. It doesn't matter how many players are enjoying the new content and the fact the game story is progressing. Instead, regress the story because (s)he doesn't like it. As opposed to further progressing the story. At the end of the current Mercy Island arcs, Longbow is booted out of Mercy City and Fort Darwin. New content can be developed from that point. Players can again be dropped off by Arachnos at Fort Darwin because Arachnos doesn't give a flying wombat's rear about the character in question and the character has to again progress forward in proving himself/herself/itself to be what Arachnos is looking for. Just like Faultline as a zone can also be further progressed to after Arachnos' position has been dealt with in the zone. Will any of this be quick? No. Absolutely not. Will this entail a great deal of work by the devs? Yes. Absolutely. What it won't do however, is step on the current story for the sake of nostalgia. The story can move forward. It should not move backward.

Except it is available in the Broadsword set as a one-handed weapon. Though it would have to be scaled down for ninja sword and scaled down a LOT for Dual Blades.

No argument that original Mercy Island felt different than new Mercy Island. However, the author's complaints boil down to the following: 1) The direction of progression has changed. Direction of progression through a zone is more or less linear just as it was on the original map. If you follow the new arcs for the new version of the zone, you move from running around in Mercy City doing missions/arcs to moving progressively towards Fort Darwin. As opposed to moving from Fort Darwin to Mercy City almost bee line and then running around in circles in Mercy City doing the other missions/arcs. The net difference? The order is reversed. 2) The original story line was better than the new story line. The original story line is still there, completely unchanged, with the contacts in plain view ready and able to give it to you. 3) Longbow doesn't fit. Longbow has always been there. Not at the docks or the gates of Mercy City, but everywhere else around the city. Very visible. Not to mention the Longbow scattered around the ruined cityscape saying things like "Shh. Here comes another." when a character got close before attacking the character. And at the starter levels, the Longbow most typically present were the Longbow Guardians and ... I think Longbow Sergeants. Even back on the original map. Once you started encountering level 5+ Longbow is when the different types of minions became more evident, I believe. 4) The Snakes are missing. The Snakes are everywhere they were previously unless there is a set Longbow presence there. 5) The author finds the new Mercy Island boring. Nothing I can say to that. There are players that rather enjoy the new Mercy Island. There are players that would rather have the previous version back. Just like prior to the change, there were players that rather enjoyed Mercy Island and players that found it boring and wanted it changed to be more interesting. If the author just wants to patrol the zone for xp? (S)he can do so. Right now. As the map currently is. If the author wants to run the original missions? (S)he can do so. Right now. No need for Ouroboros to access previous content no longer available. If the author wants to run the new arcs? (S)he can do so. Right now. All of the author's arguments in this debate have been proven invalid. The only thing left to address is the author's dissatisfaction with the current version of the zone. And while the contacts and their missions/arcs would not be available in an echo zone, the author would still be free to run patrols as (s)he sees fit on a map (s)he prefers, All without needing to take away a map and content other players are enjoying.

The original story line is still there. Walk up to Burke, he is at the same spot he was previously. Talk to him. He will send you after Arachnos and Snakes. Walk up to Kalinda. She is standing right there where you first appear. Just slightly up the stairs. Talk to her. She still sends you on the same missions she always did. The original story line has not been removed or changed. You want your character to ahve broken out of the Zig? Then do the Breakout tutorial when the game asks you if you want to go to the tutorial when you finish character creation. Mongoose is still right where he always was. So is Dr. Geist or whatever that mad scientist's name is. Most of what you posted is your opinion. Yes, on the previous map, you moved progressively from top to bottom. Now you move progressively from near the bottom to the top. With the flier at Fort Darwin taking you back to Mercy City. It may take you back as long as you can reach it, but it definitely takes you back as part of the final mission of the final arc of the new story. And even on the previous map, there was a lot of doubling back. You would run out of Fort Darwin, do something, then run back to Fort Darwin over and over until the contact sent you to Mercy City. This is not a reason to bring back the previous map and throw out the current one. Also, Longbow has always been on Mercy Island. They were around the city itself and not far from the fort. You could find them on the shore out of the way or everywhere ringing the city except for the front area. They were scouting the island and looking for vulnerabilities to exploit for their pending invasion. The difference between the maps? Is Longbow was scouting (and even attacking to a minor extent) on the previous map, and have completed their invasion on the current map. I don't remember if Mercy Island exists as an echo zone. And if it doesn't, it should so players can go back and run through the previous version of the zone. You are not giving a good reason for reverting the map though.

The Snakes are in the city. They still pop out of the holes just like they did in the previous iteration of Mercy. They can still be found in the alleys and behind the buildings just like they could in the previous iteration of Mercy. They still sun themselves on the roof tops just like they did in the previous iteration of Mercy. They are a bit harder to find because of Longbow's presence in the city, so that area no longer has them, but the rest of the city where the Snakes gathered before still has them. You can still patrol for xp in Mercy too. I do on my starting red side characters all the time. Smack down a few red RIP to get to level 3, then pop outside the city to hunt higher level mobs. I agree that if Mercy Island does not have an accessible echo, then it needs to be made available. However, you can still patrol for xp in the current iteration of Mercy and find all the same mobs and missions/arcs from prior to Longbow invading. (Edit: And even do a short arc that drives Longbow out of the city. Keep following those arcs and you drive Longbow out of Fort Darwin. Then when you run around Mercy Island, Longbow no longer has any presence in the city or fort.)

They do take it back. That is the arcs you run through in Mercy now unless you go to the original contacts. The Snakes are still there. You can find them by any hole in Mercy and on the roof tops. They can also be found in the missions. Primarily from Mongoose and Kalista.

This thread is dead. The OP has been shown to be false. I'm just waiting for it to be locked.

I have an SoA. Two of them actually. I play them from time to time when I don't feel like running one of my MMs, Corruptors, or Brutes. I haven't seen a /Kinetic in a long while even when I occasionally team, and I haven't played one in even longer. So I went with what came to mind. Still had to look up the bonuses they would give.

A single /Kinetic can also sustain FS's buffs. Fulcrum Shift has a base recharge of 60 seconds and a duration of 45 seconds. It doesn't take much in the way of recharge enhancement, even if just global, to get that recharge to under 45 seconds. I didn't use /Kinetics for my comparison because I did not think of them. Edit: Besides, @Galaxy Brain blew a planet-sized hole in my position. I'm not just taking on water, I've been wiped out.

Okay, went back and threw a Brute version of the Elec/Elec Tanker with the exact same enhancements together again and compared them to each other. I don't know what I did. I'm not duplicating the problem I saw that started this thread. I apologize. I'm going to sit down and eat my crow in peace. Can I get a mod to lock this thread? Not going to hide it behind the Hide option. Edit: For reference:

Then the two of us did something different in Mids and I need to revisit it to find out what. I had my Electric Melee Brute's Fury maxxed in Mids and was still 20 points under the Tanker just for Charged Brawl as an example. Edit: Using your post as reference, it is apparent I had an error. I'll go back and look at it again to find out what.

I think there may actually be 10 of us. 😜

You're going to have to explain how having more ATs will change how much buffing Tankers got compared to how much nerfing Brutes got. I still remember how the Brutes progressed. The first "fix" was put out and Brutes had their damage reduced. And the response from the devs was "We didn't figure how Fury would affect the Brute's damage compared to other ATs right. So this is to correct Brutes to fit between Scrappers and Tankers". *next update that reduced the Brute's damage* "Don't worry, we're just bringing brutes more in line with their blue side contemporaries. Your fury will still get you doing more damage." *next update that reduced Brute's damage* "Don't worry, with as easy as building fury is, your full fury bar will keep you going." (It now takes an 80%+ fury bar to exceed Tankers.) *next update that reduced Brute's damage* "Don't worry, we didn't change your damage cap. On a team, you can still outdamage the Tankers." *last update that reduced Brute's damage* "Don't worry, we upped your damage cap to compensate. Going all out still has you outdamaging the Tankers." (It just requires specific support to do so.) And almost every time Brutes had their damage nerfed, Tankers had their damage buffed. It is now at the point where a maxed out fury Brute still does less damage than a Tanker. And only if you have the requisite support to get past the Tanker's damage cap to the Brute's cap does the Brute finally outperform the Tanker at anything. That is like saying Colossus is stronger than an enraged Hulk and should be unless the Hulk has suitable support to reach his cap. And that is just plain laughable. Tankers have been buffed to the point they completely rendered an entire AT superfluous. Which is what many Tanker players I knew wanted. Tankers and Brutes are so similar, that many Tanker players I knew felt that Brutes should have never been made. Never mind that AT proliferation hadn't even happened yet. "Tankers should have just been made available red side." And after AT proliferation? "Tankers are available on all sides. Brutes should get off my lawn." Do I sound bitter? I probably do. Tankers and Brutes have their respective roles. Or at least, they did. Nerf Tankers. Buff Brutes. Give Brutes some other element to define them that doesn't get rid of what they have. I don't care! Pick one. Just stop stomping on Brutes! Give them back their advantage! Or at least give them an advantage that doesn't require specific powers from their teammates to enjoy. (Edit: Or doesn't require the Brute to have an infinite stockpile of red inspirations to enjoy.)

I saw Shivans on a regular basis in LRSFs. Never any nukes though.

@TheZag already explained the FS bit. Thanks though. I have never known people to carry and use nukes for anything you are mentioning. Not saying it didn't happen, just that it was never as prevalent as you are claiming. Even back before set IOs, ATOs, and so forth. The PvP community was much more present back then and most people I knew wouldn't even go into Warburg unless they had a full team. And getting everyone a nuke was a sufficient hassle that even with a full team, no one I knew cared to bother going for the nukes. I did Terra Volta trials regularly back on Live and never once did anyone have a nuke. Pick a TF. Same thing. No one had a nuke. Kronos Titan? We maybe sometimes had a single person with a nuke, but most times it was just good old-fashioned teamwork. So yeah, to me, your nuke answer is very niche. You are getting dangerously close to being hostile/insulting. The way you slotted the proc is not niche, it is more effective than how many I know slot it, myself included. There is a difference. Most Brute players have the proc slotted. You just happen to be using it more effectively than most. That makes it not niche. I'm not concerned with what is vogue or not. Never have been, never will be. For the purposes of this discussion, I discount anything that is not sustainable. Build Up? Great, you get 10 seconds of improved damage. If you slot it well enough, then you only have 20-35 seconds of it not doing anything before you can get another 10 seconds of use out of it. Nope, as far as I'm concerned, doesn't factor. Vengeance? You have to have a party member die to use, and the team, let alone the Brute or Tanker, is supposed to be doing their best to prevent that. I've never seen nukes being used on anything even remotely close to a regular basis, and back on Live I did a lot of teaming. And even if you count it as not niche? Once all 8 team members have used their nukes (assuming they all have them), then it's either time to put any further missions on hold and take a group field trip back to Warburg to get another 24 scientists (less if you have the bypass option available) before going back to your missions, or you press on without. So that is not a sustainable option either. I understand your point. Brutes shine when they have proper support. (Point of fact, so does every other AT. So that isn't really an advantage.) Brutes are the dollar store Tanker unless you have a team capable of pushing the Brute past the Tanker's damage cap. My thanks to the person that gave me that name, it sounds so much better than poor man's Tanker. It is still an advantage Brutes have over Tankers, which meets the criteria I set out in the OP, even if I find it disappointing. It does however require a team that can help the Brute get to that point. And if you are playing sub-level 45 if Ouro'ing, not up to end game if still leveling, or not on a team with specific abilities, that Brute won't get there. Answer this honestly please: If your team had one slot left, no Tankers yet on the team, and both a Tanker and a Brute asked to join the team at the same time, which would you choose? (If the answer isn't that you would have to just randomly pick one, then there is a problem with the Brute AT. Or if the answer is simply "Tanker" like most others would, then there is a problem with the Brute AT.) Brutes and Tankers do the same thing, just with different inherents. When CoV launched, Brutes had the offset of starting with higher damage than Tankers. Then Tankers complained and things got adjusted. So Brutes got higher damage after building up a little Fury instead. Tankers still complained so things got adjusted. Brutes have been losing ground and their identity since CoV launched. So now Brutes' advantage is they have a higher damage cap, but start out with anemic damage values as compared to "lowest damage melee AT" Tankers. Their Fury quickly pumps up their damage, but unless the Brute is paired with a partner, team, or league that can push the Brute to damage cap, the Tanker is the only choice for absolutely everyone I have met in the game. Tankers were always preferred over Brutes, and that is fine. Brutes only claim was their higher damage compared to Tankers, but Tankers had the better aggro management for teams, better resists, and higher HP. All good, that is what Tankers are for after all. Brutes had aggro management capability, but it took more work. And with their lower resists and HP, they had to be a little more careful than Tankers. However, they could waffle stomp enemies faster than any Tanker could hope to and that went a long way to maintaining parity. Then with the last few updates that affected Brutes and Tankers, Brutes lost their ability to keep up with Tankers unless a /Kinetic was there to bolster everyone or the team had enough support abilities to do the same thing. Not every Defender, Controller, or Corruptor set includes a damage buff power. Not everyone wants to play a /Kinetic, or an SoA, or whatever. So you will find teams that lack the ability to push the Brute up that high. Not everyone plays just at endgame so they get access to their incarnate abilities. Not everyone takes lore pets or other incarnate powers that buff anyone's damage output even when they do play just endgame. So looking at general teams where you can't count on having access to those buffs, the Tanker stomps the Brute. (Edit: Even with every member of the team having access to Assault.) Because the Tanker has better everything. Even with your point about Brute's having higher damage caps. THAT is the issue this thread is trying to address. That unless if the situation is set up to make it possible for Brutes to get to their damage cap, Brutes are inferior to Tankers in every way.

You're going to have to explain that one to me. They get access to the same power sets, except Tankers get their defensive powers earlier. (Though looking through Mids, I find it 'funny' that Tankers outdamage both Brutes and Scrappers unless the Brute gets to a higher damage % (per the discussion in this thread) and the Scrapper has their ATO proc. That is Mids though.) Edit: Huh. That was Electric Melee, but it stopped being that way when I reloaded. Edit again: I had to have had something set up wrong. Please disregard this bottom paragraph.

I can accept the /Kinetics argument. (Kinetics has a listed buff on CoD of (2.0 * Ranged_Buff_Dmg)% Damage (All) Strength (all affected targets) for 45s. Mids shows Controllers give a 20%/40% boost, not 150-250%.) The Warburg nukes one though? That is a very niche answer.

That changes my math to 669%, which is above the 602% threshold to catch up to Tankers. I sit corrected. (Edit: Still assuming those 7 SoAs all take Support Hybrid for some reason. And which is still a specialized team to get as many damage buffs squeezed in as I could.) Edit: Also, I never called Brutes struggling weaklings overshadowed by Tankers. I said Brutes no longer have any advantages compared to Tankers. In general play, that still holds true. As long as you can pump up their damage buffs on a team/league though, that changes. Though in my opinion, that is strictly a niche advantage for an entire AT since it requires sufficient teammates with the ability to bolster the Brute's damage bonuses to catch up to and finally get past the Tanker in damage capability. I did however, say explain to me what advantage the Brute has over the Tanker, and this still counts. Not enough for me to delete or hide this thread, but enough for me to leave it as is pending other comments and for the devs to evaluate the merits of.

+400% bonus damage for Tankers would be 500% damage cap. Base line is 100%. +600% bonus damage for Brutes is 700% damage cap for same reason. Also, your comparison of adding in Brute's Fury bar was already factored into my math above. It takes 602% damage (100% base + 502% buff from various sources) for the Brute to reach the same damage as the already capped at lower max Tanker.

I don't want Brutes to step on Scrappers' toes. I don't want Brutes to step on Tankers' toes. Somewhere along the way though, we went from not having Brutes stepping Tankers' toes to Tankers not only stepping on Brutes' toes, but walking all over them.

Take a Brute on a team of SoAs and have them also take Assault. Assault is +15%. Tactical Training: Assault is +15%. That's +30% per SoA. +210% from the 7 of them. Then add that to your Brute's 275% (using your explainer post for hitting 100% Fury as base). That's 485%. Still short of the Tanker's 500% damage cap, let alone the Brute's. If for some reason all 7 SoAs take the Support Core Embodiment incarnate ability instead of say Assault or Melee Hybrid powers, that is another +84%, 12% damage boost per SoA with Support, for a grand total of 569% damage. Above the Tanker's max cap, but still well below threshold to get the Brute caught up. So yeah, it takes a specialized team to get the Brute to even 600%, let alone the 700% cap. Edit: Replace any one SoA with a Tanker to run damage comparisons? And that number drops by at least 15%. Edit again: And all the while, that Tanker still has better everything else than the Brute. Better resists. Better HP. Better status protection/resists. Better END management. And the Brute despite all that buffing from the team is still not able to keep up with the Tanker.

Let's take a look at Beheader. Tanker base damage: 50.19. At 500% damage cap: 250.95 Brute base damage: 41.71. At 700% damage cap: 291.97. At 600% damage: 250.26. So in order for the Brute's improved damage cap to even be relevant, you need teammates with powers to buff the Brute's damage. And they need to get the Brute above 600% to even match let alone overcome Tanker damage output. That calls for a rather specialized team to pull off. (Edit: Or a league using @TheZag's post as reference.) Sorry @Luminara. Usually I agree with your take on things. In this case though, I can't.

It's Scrappers that get the chance for double damage. Tankers have been buffed and buffed and buffed. Brutes have been nerfed. Multiple times. Your proposal would change nothing. A Tanker would still enjoy higher resist, better END use, higher HP, better status resist, better status protection, and do better damage than the Brute running with a full Fury bar. My preference would be to nerf Tanker's damage back down. They would still retain the higher resist, better END use, better status protection, and better status resist, but Brutes would finally have a role again in their damage output. Or someone can get creative and come up with something that makes Brutes stand out as their own role/AT. I really don't care. Reverting Brutes to doing better damage than Tankers would be the simplest solution in my book. Getting anything that makes Brutes stand out as something other than the Poor Man's Tanker is my end goal.