Galaxy Brain

Now hold on, are we assuming the MM pets genders? (trolling aside...) This is sort of a weak argument given what is already possible with the game if people really wanna be degenerates

Whats to stop a female thugs MM being the reverse?

TBF, I think the MM pets being hard coded to be the mostly unique models was to have them stand out clearly from the crowd. A Longbow skinned MM would lose their pets in a crowd of Longbow enemies, etc.

Those are not stat changes tho (passive iirc can still attract enemies if you have them stand around in range). Defensive + (Not Attack my Target) activates Bodyguard within supremacy range that is a mechanical change on top of the behavior that says "don't attack unless we are attacked".

Same with how you see so many claw/regens lol

What would they be? Honestly, given the way BG mode works I find my MMs never leaving it unless on a safe team where I can sometimes set to aggressive. I could see the stances be something where aggressive gives further Supremacy buffs while in range, and passive possibly give regen and recovery while in Supremacy range. Thoughts?

Im not sure where to ask this, but I recently finished the first and night ward arcs but could have sworn there are more missions after "The Magician" that deal with the malaise mental hospital as well as the shadow hunter. After finishing the arcs, I started the procost Marchand arcs as well and I feel I missed out on something too! The enemies there are very different, and you are working with the defense force to fight the devouring earth. Did I miss a story arc going into how that happened? I guess what I am looking for is like, a guide to how each contact or arc leads to another for the "canon" experience. Is there such a thing?

It currently does not. It can be refreshed tho.

Thats gonna be a big oof from me chief

Well said @Bentley Berkeley! Though, I would still like to see changes to Bruising and possibly some +team stuff added into Tankers. It wouldn't drastically change how they play IMO, but add a bit more spice.

That'd be fun! Just a "post your characters" section.

Please don't post 8372394762894 times in a row, its bad forum etiquette. -Galaxy Azrael.

It is sort of "Chicken or Egg?" when it comes to AT global effects + changes to the AT's versions of powers tho ain't it? 😛 But yeah, I think the only "Base AT" change that would be best is to expand upon Bruising in some way. I think everyone is in agreement on that, its just the best way to go about it is the question.... Everything else would be per-set like my Grant Cover auras.

No crash on "normal" use sounds great! On the same note, maybe the t1 and t2 could be brought up to par to round out SS? 🙂

Back on topic, @Profityou mentioned powerset specific tweaks. Blasters went through a similar update as I mentioned before where they got uniform changes to key powers that act essentially as an AT update. Do you have any thoughts on that?

I'm not sure why we are going over this, but the Taunt power for Tankers could be altered separate from the Brute version in their primaries to provide a space for uniform changes.

Yes I know but I am specifically referring to the click power, "Taunt", that all tanker secondary sets have that is an AoE taunt power. Gauntlet on ST attacks is like a splash-taunt on top of the normal punch-voke. The power "Taunt" can be a space we can play with for Tankers as it is something they almost always want to use often and hits a wide array of enemies.

Right, Tankers have both the Splash Taunt from Gauntlet on all ST attacks, and the AoE Taunt. The AoE taunt is a spot we could tweak however if we expanded bruising to that as well, as I imagine it would be easier to apply an effect to an existing power that has no other secondary effects already than to tweak every application of Gauntlet across sets.

They also have the actual power "Taunt" in their secondaries: Gauntlet is secondary to this, and IIRC applies on ALL attacks not just the T1: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Inherent_Powers#Gauntlet Though I may have misread and you're referring only to Bruising... anywho, if the T1 had a stacking or irresistible portion of -Res it would be more used IMO.

@Profit

Im not sure you can balance them at the IO level without drastic changes. What do you think of my last suggestion @Profit? Its similar to your OP with some tweaks.

The role is still viable, but the game is not designed for it and thats where connundrum happens. Crowd Control AT's (Doms/Trollers), high damage mitigation from support stacking, and a direct competitor from Brutes all encroach on the "Tank" role but that does not mean Tankers can't still stand out 🙂

I would still like something for T1 + Taunt at least while solo... not sure what's the best ratio for that though. Even something like you can stack T1 + Taunt, but you cannot keep stacking beyond that would be nice? A passive damage boost would be nice, but that could also be part of the primary changes. Maybe one offensive and one defensive team boost per set? Like in Shield you already have Grant Cover, but then you also have Phalanx Fighting which could give +damage to the team near you. Invuln could give maybe defense and tohit Dark could increase damage and resist Etc

The rp behind bruising is going sideways here. And if it's taunting, why not add bruising to all their taunt effects like I suggested? If I had to boil down all the suggestions so far, I think that changing certain powers in Tanker sets would be the best bet, Blaster-Style. Blasters uniformly had Sustain Powers added to their secondaries in a generally uniform manner. They generally come at lvl 20, are generally a toggle, but all grant some form of Regen or Absorb, and a hefty Recovery boost (or end discount for /nrg). So no matter the blaster, they all have the ability to pick up a sustain power that more or less helps them all equally. Tankers already have Bruising on their T1 attacks that is not skip-able. This applies a 20% res debuff on targets hit, and for all sets except TW this is also a ST application. This seems like an oversight, but maybe Bruising could be applied as a small AoE like with TW on all T1's? That would certainly help out in big-team scenarios. Alternatively, all T1 attacks could maybe have a small AoE damage component like Contamination / Baby Thunderstrike to help spread Bruises? Speaking of wide spread, Tankers also all get an AoE Taunt in their secondaries. Being tanks, you could argue this is also a must-have for their game play. Why not add Bruising to this power as well? Tankers already will bruise small batches of targets with their T1 power, and with Taunt they could apply a much wider net for -Res on targets. This would stack with the T1 power of course, which by proxy will raise Tanker damage but also provide a very useful debuff for teams. Currently, Bruising does not stack from multiple tankers. Earlier in the thread it was proposed to have some portion of bruising be stack-able while another portion is not. This could work well here if both were about the same in power: Bruising: your T1 power and Taunt power apply -20% Res on targets. 10% is unresistible and unstack-able from any source (the same or other Tankers), while the other 10% is resistible and stack-able. Example: A Tanker taunts a group (-20% res on them, unless they have resistance than 1/2 of that value is resisted), then starts pummeling individuals with their T1 power to apply further -Res. On punched targets, they would go from 20% -> 30% -Res on one hit, and the next will be -40%, and so on. With multiple Tankers in a group, this would constantly be stacked up as they fight and taunt, applying portions of -Res on top of one another to effectively increase not only their own damage, but the team's damage while also corralling enemies together. On top of this, I think that alterations to actual powers in the secondaries could always be nice to stand out from other melees, especially Brutes who share all the same powers. Fire Melee already has an example where it has a PBAoE instead of a powerful ST attack that Brutes have, but tweaks here and there could always be welcome. One that I would like to see is that Primary sets get more examples like Grant Cover from shield, where tanker powers buff the team in a small way here or there. In any case, Tankers should be the melee AT that is the center of attention for both enemies and the team to focus on. They're the force of personality that should batter down the opposition and bolster their team's morale. Changes like these are already present in Tanks as of now, but are not really uniform or they could be exaggerated further. Thoughts?

I always saw bruising as like, "combat advantage". The Tanker's might is able to give them an edge once they start engaging in a fight (via landing attacks), similar to how Sentinels roll.