ironjoe

At the same time I like to ask for team members to help out with some tactics on different missions. For example sometimes people don't like having a stalker on the team. When ever I have one on a team I call out trouble enemies and ask them to make that their priority target and thank them for murdering them quickly. People like when what they are doing gets recognized. That sort of thing occurs most often on level 1-50 content. On 50+ content I always like when someone calls out the tactics to use in the trial so I don't mess things up on accident. I'm still relearning a lot of the higher end stuff and it takes several runs through to get it down for me. With actual herding I have done that when groups want to take on +4 content when the group is below 50. Doing different corner pulls is still highly effective for dismantling different rooms that would cause a wipe otherwise. At higher 50+ it's more about grabbing that agro quickly to clump up the enemies to be knocked down by the team. The challenge I like at that level is finding the rhythm for when to leave that last remnants of a group to gather agro on the next. It's a balance of not leaving behind the team but getting there ahead to get things gathered. I do like keeping the team together for our powers complementing each other but that can also be less necessary at higher levels. Stealthy characters running around doing stealthy things is obviously an exception. That being said it's all dependent on team composition and what people want to do as there is a lot of flexibility between preferred play styles and what works for the team.

I really feel these changes are helping to differentiate where Brutes and Tanks differ. Brutes will still be great solo and can tank on teams when they want. Tanks will still be weaker than Brutes solo but will shine more on teams. I see the tank AT as one focused on the team experience and I see changes that reinforce that as a bonus. That being said my initial testing was done solo. The increased aoe/cone size was noticeable on my tank and I think will translate well to the teaming experience. I was able to use it to reach the agro cap much quicker than the past. Damage increases weren't at noticeable when solo.

I did some longer testing tonight switching out from my tank on live and then back to a similar tank I made on test. I can say the current mechanic on test is preferable to what is on live for most people. It gives a solid damage boost and the notification works. Rage junkies can go and double and triple stack it with the penalties if they want but a single stack seems most balanced to me. I'd also be happy with some of the other suggestions going around but as is I believe the devs have something better here than what's currently live.

Sorry for being late to the party on my feedback. Best part of this is the power being highlighted. After playing and thought, the plan to change to the reverse also works. The change works well in game play for me and I like this and other suggestions that give a similar result of a single stack of rage. There has been enough comments on different ways to potentially tweak things further but I like what the devs are trying to do here. I find I have a lot less management for watching things with this change over what is currently live.

Last night was fun though I felt like I should have stopped a couple times for lessons on herding/pulling to some of the new tanks along on my team. They would often try to solo part of the group as opposed to herding them in for everyone to have fun.

That is because you, like many mistake the tank archetype for the tank role. It's easy to make that mistake considering they both use the same name. In gaming the tank role is simple. You are the meat shield that take the hits so others don't. The tank archetype does well at this but they take it a step forward. The tank archetype is not only able to perform the traditional tank role but they are also a melee controller through the use of agro management. The multiple methods of generating agro allow the tank to focus melee, ranged, and aoe attacks in a direction. It also allows them to manipulate the enemies by drawing them closer. This can act as a damage multiplier when done properly to draw everything into a tight group that makes the most of aoe, pbaoe, and cone attacks. So if the tank is just taking the hits, then they are only doing what many other archetypes could do. If they are actively managing the battle field then they are doing what the archetype allows them to do and helping the team.

This is an implementation I would find as fun for the power. As far as the marker I would say have the ring on when the power is still active as a warning of the crash that will come as opposed to the other way around. Showing that pushing yourself even further comes with more penalty's when double or triple stacking rage.

Please don't discount the opinion of myself and many others in this thread topic. People can have differing opinions without them being completely discounted. Discounting the opinions and experience of others is quite toxic to discussion. Being marginalized in your responses doesn't persuade others towards your point but motivates them in the opposite direction.

Inspiration management isn't a challenge, it's an inane task that makes the game less fun. A fun challenge on live was building the right set up with powers, enhancements , ecr. to unlock making rage great. I would just like to see it change in some way from the current nerf. Maybe that wasn't enough of a challenge for those that like inventory management as a game but for the rest of us it was. If there needs to a be rebalance per previous suggestions, so be it but I just want the fun parts of it I had on live.

I had multiple tanks on live. My first was an Invuln/Super Strength tank and my last was a Shield Defense/Super Strength tank. I remade my SD/SS tank on Homecoming and all I can say is that I skipped rage here. The -Def made it so it the penalties outweighed the benefits. I still play the character out of love for the concept and set but the nerf from the experience on live is felt. There seem to be many good ideas out there for rebalancing it and I am hopeful the devs on Homecoming will consider that and give an experience closer to live with the powerset.

In addition to the herding techniques mentioned above, I also break each side into four sections where I herd around the agro cap every time. Looking from the bowl you have: close middle, far middle, upper left, upper right. With the middles they each have a left and right side that can take some consolidation. So first I hit close middle and taunt/punchvoke both sides and then break los to herd towards the bowl like sbloyd mentioned. I then go back to get the far middle in a similar fashion but breaking los behind some door edges before following the same path as before. I then go back for an upper edge hitting the front group, then the back and then breaking los to hit again and then herd the same path. What I would like in the future is organizing assigned sides for tanks so we aren't breaking agro on each other like sometimes happens. Like tanks on teams 1&2 take south, 3&4 east, 5&6 west. I've had a few runs where we instinctively got that figured out and we were all pulling some mega herds combined. Attached picture from internet for reference:

My main is a Shield/Super Strength Tanker and he does very well in the knockdown department. You will typically have Shield Charge come up every 45 seconds even with basic IOs. Hand Clap I have up every 20 seconds. Then Foot Stomp will recharge on 10 seconds. Between that and the single target attacks in between, things are nearly never able to stand. Note that Hand Clap and Foot Stomp requires the KB->KD IO to get the most out of this.

I was never super active on the forums but I was active in the game as Iron Joe (@ironjoe) with KGB Special Section 8.