archgemini24

I noticed the Defense messing with getting Reactive Regeneration going on my imported Brute build, as well. I was still quite a bit more survivable than I was on Live, but my Resistance Respec was far less susceptible to getting Spiked by a couple of Knives bosses after the rest of the spawn leaned on my Defense enough to remove it. My playtesting reminded me that Resistance inherently Resisting Resistance Debuffs will always be a perk that every other mitigation wish they had.

I totally get that, especially with the Defense changes. It is a playstyle thing: I like being missed, avoiding debuffs when I can, having places for the LotG uniques (assisted by most sets I play having some native Defense to build with, while Regen has none, lol!), and leveraging small Lucks than small Sturdies. I also acknowledge a bit of a carryover of mentality from my Peacebringer, who has Resistance covered but needs as few Slows to hit as possible. Your suggestion is even more apt for Tankers and Brutes, who also have higher Resistance and HP caps, base values to play with, better +Resist bonuses to use, or all of the above. It was noticeable when I ran my Brute on Test, but it was jarring on the Tank I built since my only experience Tanking is on my Shield/Dark, who has decent Resists, but wants to get 45/59% Defense, first.

I overkilled it a bit and tried Regen with Super Strength, thinking that the consistent Knockdown in Foot Stomp would at least give Regen its best chance to breathe (similar to how I leverage Solar Flare on my Peacebringer); time to regen, time for powers to recharge, and extra recharge. I know I will have to eventually try it with a less complementary secondary, but the set was fantastic, even at the back end of fights where the fodder was defeated so I did not hit as many procs. The Defense Debuff Resistance is still not quite high enough enough to warrant my usual efforts to build for Defense, so I tried using Resistance as my second layer, instead, and rarely have I ever felt so bulky. I know I am not the best builder so I was also running Defense Amplifier just to see how high I could go, but I was pushing numbers I thought I would need a Resist-based Primary to get, even before throwing in Rune of Protection and Barrier. I will echo the sentiments that Fast Healing, Quick Recovery, Resilience, and Ailment Resistance are kinda meh, but I know even I have made posts suggesting a player might need to take all the Passives to get the full suite of Debuff Resistances, so any one Passive might be lackluster, but all 4 should be solid. This is close but I thought there would be some more Recharge Debuff Resistance native... which could also kind of act as offensive support. Sure it not passive Recharge like Quickness (which would be amazing), but at least the offense you have would stay more intact.

If the idea is to have something available frequently for newer players early in the powerset, might Reconstruction warrant another look if Dull Pain/Second Wind is less of an option? If the idea is that Reconstruction is available for a "retry" more consistently due to debuffs, does it make sense for it be more available for retries overall (base recharge change: Healing Flames is 40 seconds instead of 60). Perhaps a small post-click Regeneration boost and/or Regeneration and Recharge debuff resistance would give Reconstruction some uniqueness against other basic click-heals even if the base recharge is left alone; it would gain a lingering effect, and the temporary debuff resistance (again) helps it be more available for retries. Other notes on running the set (Brute): It felt strange to finally see that all 9 powers had just enough of a use to warrant taking them all. At one point in my Regen-life I had builds where I did not take anything after Integration unless they were slot mules. Reactive Regeneration felt really good, but the stacks were a bit erratic. I am sure there were a few times where they saved me, but it did not feel like something I could leverage for myself (not particularly helped by the fact I run a Defense build; that is on me). If there are options for modification, please place my vote with doubling stack duration. Appreciate the cast-time reduction and bonus damage on Moment of Glory. Duration is still seems short even if this is meant to be a (now) Full-Body (offense and defense) Build-Up. Generally, the set felt better while maintaining the risk factor of getting Spiked. Will definitely enjoy my Regeneration character more, but will still pull out other melee characters when I need more top-end performance. I have not tried it on Tanks, yet. Life has been Lifing, recently.

That last part is the kicker. A click-intensive set, if played well and balanced for the loss of offense due to activation times and for having to require more attention, should be far more effective in boosting your performance (defensively and offensively) than a set with all toggles or passives. I have no idea how difficult it would be to find the sweet spot that makes the set worth taking and mastering but not breaking the game, because if it does not or cannot do all that, would the set be worth running, at all? I am thinking of two ways the powers might function: higher base mitigation values than normal but the powers are unaffected by recharge and slows, or slightly lower base mitigation values that are impacted by recharge and slows, but could stack.

Cross Punch is also another place for the Forced Feedback +Recharge Proc, so in a Base Form build it also has that utility. I would love that type of power as an option in the Luminous Blast powerset (looks at Power Crash longingly), but if it was there it would probably be KB instead of KD which would make for another Sudden Acceleration I would have to slot, lol! Fully agree on Tough. It was an extra place to drop a few Uniques. I usually do not have it in a tray, either, especially once I get Light Form fully up and running.

My attempt to tie this back to the original subject: Circle of Thorns might be overtuned to the point where folks will avoid them whenever possible, similar to how most folks curently avoid Arachnos and Carnies when they are options for Radios, which ties back to my original point about new-CoT difficulty where if all four groups are going to same difficulty (or close) yet just different in how they reach that score, why not go to DA (other than access)? Can CoT be tuned to where they hit the middle marks (that is, significantly harder than they are on live, but distinctly a step down from Arachnos and Carnies) similar to where we think Malta and Freakshow land?

Do those come up as Radio options? I usually see Council, CoT, Arachnos, and Carnies. Perhaps it is just my rotten luck, but, yes, those would qualify as the middle difficulty mobs. Good catch! Edit to add: thank you KaizenSoze! So Malta is rare, but Freaks do not come up. Good to know something matched my anecdotal observations.

Especially if you get the wrong configuration of Mages. Base to-hit being 64% in DA is irrelevant when 2 Ruins and 2 Deaths can break all your IO building efforts because you do not have Debuff Resistance (on my PB, at least I had Light Form to mostly negate the Tar Patch -Res). Any of my characters with Debuff Resistance were mostly ok, but anyone without was put on notice immediately. For all that I might as well go where my kill speed and survival scores are better because I am 53 instead of 51 against the same level enemies, the per-mob rewards are higher because it is Incarnate content, and I get a reward roll at every mission completion. Again, that was all solo, though. It does not look like teams are having too much more trouble, which is fine but I do not think was the intention. Among the Radio mission enemies, we had old-Council and old-CoT that maybe hit a 2/10 or 3/10 on the difficulty scale versus Arachnos and Carnies that hit 7 or greater, so there were some people arguing that Council and CoT were too easy. I would say these changes put them both at least among the Arachnos and Carnies (depending on build, potentially harder). Maybe I am just ignorant, but where is the end-game Radio-option enemy group that runs at the middle difficulty for the majority of players? That is, if you rolled 3 Radio missions, 1 being Arachnos, 1 Carnies, and 1 of that other group, you go ahead and pick that group if you want lighter work without rerolling the set?

Did some running against the new CoT with the characters I usually play (+3/8 or +4/8), and while I do not mind the added difficulty, the loss of "vent your frustration by unleashing your almost-fully-realized Demigod against them" enemy groups took some adjustment. I actually liked the added diversity of Mages... until the game decided to throw that diversity out the window and give me 2 Ruins and 2 Deaths in every spawn. My non-Regen Tanks, Scrappers, and Brutes held up well enough to where I probably would not think to change settings, but the Peacebringer will either need another look or just go back to +2 or +1. I freely acknowledge I could turn the difficulty down... or run back to DA, where those characters keep all of the power they have gained so the enemies Con 2 colors lower, my kill speed increases as a result, and I get better per-mob rewards. Are we ok with DA being a potentially equal or possibly easier place to grind?

I had always envisioned my Human-only build to a Lumi-Lumi Sentinel that had to wait until super late to get any sort of Mez Protection, but got some melee abilities to make up for it similar to Dominator Assault sets. As far as existing sets: I would say Energy/Invulnerability Sentinel, with Fighting and Flight pools: Energy-based attacks, some melee in Air Superiority, Punch, and Cross Punch, Resistance Shields, Dull Pain, Resist-based T9 (Unstoppable is a step down from Light Form, though). Warshades? Dark Control/Dark Assault Dominators or any Dark Armor/Dark Melee/Blast, Dark Mastery combination with Stealth and Teleport pools, perhaps? Covers the Melee, Blast, and Control, and mitigation (resistance, mostly) bits that Warshades offer.

First place my mind went to since I started playing that game. 6 total currencies in the City, 1 which is really a subset of another (Shards/Threads) and another which is mostly just for costumes (Aether), means most players will only worry about 4... globally. That is tame, and I hope it stays that way.

Adding my name to the Fulcrum Shift chorus, and to the general consensus that Speed Boost is pretty cracked. Shameless plug for Light Form, though. Self-Contained, capable of capping Resistance to all but Psi, permable, and even provides some cursory Mez Protection for Base and Nova forms. My Regeneration characters would happily trade Resilience, Instant Healing, Revive, and Moment of Glory for Light Form straight-up.

That part. My understanding is that Lightning Rod and Shield Charge spawn a pseudopet that does the damage, so they do not critical. As an off-shoot, they also do not break Hide. And, while all that is nice and allows for ridiculous tele-ganking, the plug is that Stalkers give up Thunderclap (lol) for Assassing's Strike (the big single-target attack that all the other ATs wish they got on Electric Melee), which can then be dropped on the boss of the spawn that is left. Flip-side, unless things have changed, Stalkers do not get the benefit of Against All Odds until Hide is broken. Really should not matter, though.

This is a really tough call between my two Kheldians: My Peacebringer is a character inspired by my kids. My Warshade is inspired by a friend who... damn, I can't think about it without tearing up. Knowing the person she was and how much we love each other's kids, she would tell me to keep the Peacebringer. I have lots of toons that are Pre-Snap returns, are absolute beasts, and hold sentimental value. I would hate to lose them, but as far as only one, they do not even make the podium.