Doomguide2005

There's a solid tip buried in this post. Many of Earth's patch powers such as QS can, with an SOs worth if range enhancement, be used even on longer hallways from around a corner and completely out of LoS of a retaliatory response by the mob. Between QS and VG plus other powers like Freezing Rain or Sleet you can devastate a mob from complete safety.

Well there are the various Imbuement inspirations which when used effect all teammates "nearby". I do not know how close they need to be to the user. And while not team wide there are the Ultimate inspirations that offer +1 level shifts to the user. Nothing in the Wiki description indicates the user needs to be level 50 to use one. The minimum Tactical Imbuement would pretty much eliminate the difference between fighting +4's and +5's. (7.5% buff).

I like Quicksand myself, but I can understand why it's considered obsolete by many post ~40. I tend to take it for a couple reasons. First one of Earth's strengths is the sheer amount of control it can offer good for handling adds and ambushes. QS is one of those controls. Second I tend to exemp frequently and one of the things that can get low(er) level teams in trouble is getting overwhelmed and overrun. QS will slow any pursuit and allow a team to withdraw and regroup more readily. In addition to Earth/Rad consider Earth/Cold. Sleet, Benumb, and Heatloss are a potent trio of debuffs vs hard targets and the Shields can take many of those desirable defense and damage resistance special IOs as well as being very useful buffs for teammates, particularly before defense caps are met.

How many hit points does the MM have and how many do the Brutes have? What are their respective sets? Where are seeing the amount of healing received?

Gearing ratios?

Might have. Half wondered if that's why no one was mentioning it. @Rejolt ah the memories ... Having actually had that happen once on Live in Talos.

*Throws fuel on alt fire* Did I mention I watched an SG mates DM/Inv scrapper tank the Patrons and then Recluse on the STF a while back on Live.

No one has even mentioned a particular annoyance with Numina's TF. You're one Rikti World Invasion away from putting the TF on hold as all the hunt targets vanish from the zone being invaded.

My feel for Scrapperlock is pretty much aligned with @Doc_Scorpion's view. Fury more equates with mindless rage, berserk behavior. Scrapperlock is more a zen-like focus on your immediate foes where everything else fades into the background with just a hint of cold rage behind it. And no I don't really think controlled crits belongs on a scrapper, that's someone else's schtick.

And as this thread attests they are many, many potent set pairs. Currently I see lots about Shield/Dark tanks, way back it was Fire/Kins and Ill/Rad (and Fire or Ice paired to Nrg blappers). Then Cold came on the scene leading to Cold/Sonic and Sonic/Cold (defender and corruptor) and replacing Rad with Cold (hence Ill/Cold). And that's just my short subjective listing. It's also just looking at it from the solo point of view, powerful isn't only with respect to solo stuff or you wouldn't end up with things like the FRads (arguably potent solo but verging on ridiculous synergy teamed) or the defender Empaths of Green Machine (not remotely potent solo but nearly unstoppable on teams of 3+ grouped. And that doesn't mention Traps and Poison solo or teams of VEATs or I'm sure many others I'm forgetting or glossing over. Or how the progression from SOs to IO sets to the latest Incarnate builds effects everything.

And unless I'm mistaken part of the reason folks up thread said to get the +endurance accolades and set bonuses for +endurance is because set bonuses for recovery and the proc operate as a percentage of your max endurance, more end equals more recovery. Also keep in mind Mids doesn't, as a default setting, tell you your end consumption while including your click powers. This normally means the big consumer of endurance, your click attacks isn't displayed in the totals. IIRC you can mouse over an individual power to see its use over time and again, if old memories serve me, figure out how much endurance your attack chain(s) use from there. That's more math than I typically want to do so I look at my net recovery with various rates indicating to me how badly I need to adjust play style or work on the build to meet requirements. Others look at consumption while others just keep making changes till it works for them.

I get you. At the same time folks run into the same issues teaming blueside. If story and content matter to you (most of) the same things can done goldside.

Made me chuckle ... sounds like Supremacy for Sidekicks (which I'm guessing is where the idea came from). Which isn't such a bad idea though I think there would be a need to balance it against actually taking the Leadership pool (Tactics, Assault etc.). It shouldn't be more potent for the pairing than Leadership taken by the Mentor, particularly if the two were to stack their effects.

Or find a group looking to do the content. Maybe the only thing holding others back is "there's no one else doing it" and you just need to get the ball rolling.

In other related thoughts if you're a squishy 3 of Gladiator's Armor provides 3pts of KB protection (and +recovery at 2 slots)

Thanks @Bopper, that would indeed make it less likely I'd swap. It may very well be the 3rd slot in RoP is what I'm looking to get by not pushing ED harder in another power with that slot. As well it would pay to see how much time is actually trimmed and resistance adding with that 3rd slot. Even if the difference in the % enhancement is seemingly 'large' the actual net may be smaller than hoped or more valuable elsewhere. That's part of the advantage of Mids it takes but moments to swap around and see the results of various choices.

Another thing to think about is the value of a slot. I can't currently play around in Mids but I'd compare slotting 2 boosted resist/rech vs 3 boosted. I suspect the 3rd boosted slot is hard up against ED and may only add a few points of resistance or take a few seconds of recharge off (or less). And then I would ask if that 3rd slot would be of more value to the build overall if slotted into another slot in a different power. In general when building I find I am more pressed for slots in my power selections than getting a little more into the 'red' on a given power.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

I personally don't think you need to do all that much to the notoriety difficulties to test folks mettle. Making mobs larger is not going to do much without other changes. And I'm not convinced making the mobs +5, +6 or +7 really is the ticket either. There are mobs out there now that are wickedly nasty. Folks by and large avoid them. I'd totally forgotten about Vanguard Sword until a recent thread, for example. When folks start easily tackling these missions solo at +4/×8 let me know.

Okay roll up an Electric/Fire. I can respect not caring for it, looking at concept first, theme and all but if that pairing was designed from the ground up for ranged combat someone's elevator not only didn't reach the roof it barely left the ground floor. Afterthought: And as I said in another thread characters do not at any point exist as a single power set but as two until level 35 when another is added. Yes the primaries are vastly set up with ranged powers but that's one half a character.

Balance I'd like you to meet your arch nemesis Perception. As Luminara pointed out a while back basic IO's are largely already balanced by ED. The values of ED don't care how they're reached whether it's IOs, SOs, TOs or some combination. The problem ("Oh!, Hi there Perception what's up?") is more about set bonuses and judging from the thread procs. Balance in a system this complex and variable strikes me as a worthy goal but essentially impossible and very subject to Perception (see Bill Z's response to Tidge above). For one I don't think any of us expect (and that's probably not true, but they have a server doing that already I believe) a static game which is probably the only place and time any Dev team has even a remote chance of achieving anything considered balanced by anything close to a 100% of the playerbase. What we want I'm thinking is to be close enough (whatever the hell that means), close enough to be considered fair and equitable. But again Perception and as Troo put it Expectations poke their heads in and Consesus tends to start dancing between the exit door and a spot at the table.

Fire/Storm, uncontrolled chaos incarnate. Flaming Monkey's chasing Tornado and Lightning Storm victims every which way.

LOL I remember that. Think there was a similar thread on Live.

Yup, recall doing it on my first Tanker a Fire/Axe. Started with 8. Slogged for 'hours' till needing sleep took its toll on the team and we all agreed to meet up the next night. Well 3 of us showed up and we pressed on. We had a better outcome at least as several painful hours later we managed to finish. Yay. It was a while before doing it again. But a lot like Numina you needed it if you wanted the badges and accolade.

I hear you, I run lots of Emps and the stress from having to buff like mad at times becomes unfun in the extreme and I'll drag out one of my scrappers, blasters, huntsman etc. and just mindlessly kill stuff. But as I point out in one of those "I want a healer, not some blaster" those blasts even if never touched are a great place to chase set bonuses that will help you do the fun stuff safer and/or better. Those Shields can similarly take both defense +3% uniques (among other things). That's 6% defense (all) to replace a couple of ranged only 6 slotted Pacing set bonuses. Or if looking for recharge 5 Red Fortune + LotG increased recharge is 12.5% in set bonuses for recharge. Then just put them on tray 6 and forget about ever buffing with them (if you must and if asked tell them you got tired of people complaining you ruined their costumes 😜)