Mystic_Cross

Having TF at 20 with its high end cost (along with being a requirement) really doesn't help sub-level 30 endurance issues. Right now I'm feeling like EM is going to be a slog for end on Tankers until after getting ET at 38. Sets that don't have endurance management will feel it most, that's how it is on my invuln tanker thus far anyway. It also doesn't seem to be worth the endurance hit using TF>BS and that is the only "combo" available until level 35 on tanks. At higher levels, having no endcost on ET helps a good deal. If you only use the TF>ET combo it's like halving the endcost of TF for +2x the damage. I'm not sure if that completely makes up for hellish levelling conditions below 38 though.

Ah, then you’re in the level range. Should be able to just go see the contact. He’s on the NW side of Steel Canyon, just below where ICON is.

I’m not sure that’s accurate. It may be how they currently behave, even on regular Homecoming, but I distinctly remember vahz Embalmed blowing up on my Invuln Tanker way back in retail live. They were one of those groups I disliked doing because their toxic damage ate my Invuln and /EM was not the best set for AoE to keep them from exploding due to ST damage. I’m not sure which section of the Ouro list “Champion” falls under, but the arc is in the level 25-29 range at the very bottom of the list. It has the same name as this thread title “The Graveyard Shift”.

This was an Invulnerability/Energy Melee Tanker, so no damage in the taunt aura, no damage auras of any kind for that matter. I have no taunt enhancements or set IOs slotted in it either, just common IOs, 1 End Reduction (Lv25) and 3 Defense (Lv30) to be exact. I suppose it could still be a side-effect of the changes to taunt auras taking sets, but I'd imagine needing to have a damage proc of some kind slotted in order for it to do this. Near the end of that same mission in the boss area, I had six or seven Embalmed standing around me squatting while I ignored them and took out the other enemies that were actually attacking. Once I took out the threats I sat there for about another minute just watching the Embalmed squat and reset before picking them off one at a time. On a side note, It's too bad you'll need to bring the spawns in line, I was finding it rather fun as-is... perhaps you could note down what's making them so unsportsmanlike in order to use that for some future content? 😄

So I restarted the arc in Ouro with a level 30 Tank using basic IOs and on base +0/x1 difficulty. Apparently there are no Eidolon boss spawns in regular mobs during the first mission at that setting, so I didn't see a repeat of the mixed level 20/29 boss combo in groups. However I'm in the middle of... mission 4? now - "Crash the Unholy Masquerade", and there seem to be some fairly large groups of enemies around. On average it's been about 2 Lts and 8-10 minions per spawn... and then there was this : again, the same group shortly after I engaged them and defeated a few: as you can see in the screenshots, the difficulty setting is +0/x1. I didn't have too much of a hard time clearing them out on my Tank, but I imagine other ATs might not have such an easy time... although the Embalmed ones don't seem to really attack, they just sit there crapping themselves, so maybe it won't be that big of an issue unless they're able to finally dump their load. I don't think I've actually seen one of them explode yet when it wasn't an immediate explosion. Edit: Ok apparently whenever my taunt aura ticks, it interrupts the Embalmed Cadavers from exploding and they "reset". I don't recall it ever doing that on live. I always thought the only way to interrupt the explosion was to deal actual damage. Is this a bug or is it WAI now? Edit 2: I took a short 8 sec video clip of the Embalmed resetting in the taunt aura without me taking any actions, but not sure if we're allowed to post video... or how to do it if we are.

They are wrong, or it's a bug if it is happening... edit: summers beat me to it, lol

So, I just finished the first mission in the level 25-29 arc through Ouroboros on my tank at +0/x8 difficulty. Some of the boss spawns were wonky, spawning one level 20 boss and one level 29 boss together. This happened in 3 separate areas during the mission and I took screenshots, so I'll link them here with a view of the map and the bosses: I'll be running through the arc again on a less kitted out and more level appropriate version of the same character in a bit. I have to say, I found the mission interesting. I really liked the way the ambushes came in (even though they didn't scratch me). I'm thinking I'll "feel the burn" more on a level appropriate character with basic IOs slotted... although I think I'll be trying that at base difficulty to see how it goes, haha!

Haven't read through the posts here so I don't know if this has been mentioned. I just started this arc through Ouroboros in the level 25-29 section on my level 50 tanker. I teleported to the contact via the large Ouro crystal and realized my recipe Inventory was full. BUG: I talked to the contact to use the store to sell my excess.... it makes the "ding" sound and moves down the list as if things are selling, but they are not. All of the items remain in my inventory. It is the same no matter what I attempt to sell, enhancements, recipes, inspirations, salvage... The name in my contact list is "Agent Watkins" and the name of the NPC Where I am using the store is "FBSA NetOps Agent Watkins" who is right in front of you after the teleport from Ouroboros. I do not know if the store is working when doing the arc in the appropriate level range, but I will try to check that later if time permits.

Wow... just wow! This is a huge update! So many changes I want to comment on, but a lot of testing is in order first! So until then I'll just say.... Thank you to the Homecoming team for all of your Hard Work!

Not really looking at the meta at all, just generic IO slotting and playing on "easy" +1/x3 or +0/x6, which any armor set on generic IOs/SOs should be able to manage. Even Regen can be made serviceable in meta... with specific primaries and far more slotting investment than any other secondary needs. I was just relaying my input on the base performance between Regen and WP. I typically use generic IOs from 15-50 and vendor TOs, DOs and SOs while leveling. At 50 I'll make a Mids build (or three) and run them through some things on test until I'm happy with the performance, and then finally start acquiring what I need on live to make it happen. I don't judge powersets based on "meta" play, I judge them based on how they perform with generic IOs slotted... because that's what I use and it's close "enough" to what the game is balanced on (that being SOs). Regen is not on par with other defensive sets at this level, at all, and Willpower severely outperforms Regen at what it's supposed to be best at... regeneration, Outside of 90 second intervals every 5 minutes or so. On a fresh 50 with generic level 50 IOs, both Regen (without IH) and Willpower (with 1 enemy in RttC) each have 578% regen using 3 Heal IOs in each power that boosts regeneration. This gives Willpower a regen value of 47hp/s due to High Pain Tolerance adding +MaxHP. Meanwhile Regen only has 36hp/s unless it also uses a 3 heal-slotted Dull Pain (which can't be kept perma at this point) to bring the regen amount up to almost 58hp/s while DP is active. Either way you look at it, Regen has 10hp/s less regeneration than Willpower, or 10hp/s more while using Dull Pain, and without IH you can't get any higher. Even if RttC could only affect 1 enemy at a time, a 10hp/s regen still wouldn't come close to making up the difference of resist and defense that WP has. But RttC can still scale up to 9 more enemies for 83hp/s regeneration... that's 25hp/s better than regen using DP (47hp/s more the rest of the time)... and it can maintain that at all times on top of having better defense and resists. If Instant healing was up at all times, then Regen would be about equal to Willpower with its better resists, defense and a saturated RttC. But Instant Healing doesn't recharge fast enough, nor does it stay up long enough to add meaningful mitigation. It might get you through half a mission or so, but then won't be available again until after at least 1 more mission. MoG has the same issue. Sure, I could roll a Willpower alt and pretend that it's a Regeneration alt instead... but why should I have to do that when we have an actual Regeneration powerset that should perform at least as well, if not better, than that Willpower set? Granted, if there was no Regeneration set available, then that's probably what I'd do... but that's not the case. If the answer to playing a generic IO slotted Regen character is to "just roll WP and pretend" then they might as well just delete Regen from the game entirely, instead of gathering feedback to make it perform on-par with other defensive sets.

Domination absolutely doubles the magnitude of any mez. A mag 3 hold becomes mag 6, a mag 4 immobilize becomes mag 8 etc. it also increases the duration of the domination part of the mez to be about 50% higher than a Controllers base duration on their mezzes.

I always wanted to like Regen but it never felt as powerful as it should be when compared against superheroes like Wolverine, Deadpool etc. in the comics. When Willpower was released I always felt a little bit like they got the roles reversed between the two. I always thought Regen should be the "relentlessly persevering through damage without stopping" set, and Willpower should have been the one that needed to stop (click a lot) to focus their will to keep going. It just doesn't make sense to me that someone with superhuman healing ability has to constantly stop attacking in order to put effort (willpower) into healing themselves, and some regular joe who just has "the will to keep going" never has to stop to rest/recover at all and just keeps trudging along at a faster pace. Willpower can currently reach higher levels of regeneration than Regeneration can (without IH), and that's before even factoring in the layered Def/Resists it has. In order for Regen to compete, it needs to have noticeably superior regeneration capabilities at base, with it's click powers factoring in afterwards to be the equivalent of those layered defenses, in my opinion. I do like some of the ideas @Bopper put up in his post, with a few minor caveats that I'll address below: I agree with most all of this, except that I think it should also include a high level of resistance to Recovery/Endurance drain and perhaps Recharge/Slow resistance as well. I also don't think it would be completely unreasonable to start the Scaling Regeneration at 90% health instead of 75% given that there is virtually no other substantial form of protection outside of healing back damage taken (i.e. very low resists, no defense). Additionally, I think it would be very fitting to see some kind of Heal over Time effect added in, either in place of, or in addition to flat +Regen% bonuses. Or if not a straight HoT then some kind of heal that can proc on damage received. I picture it as kind of like a "you're getting shot, but by the time the bullet passes through you've already regenerated half the damage it caused" type of thing. Like a bunch of small burst heals that cover some of the incoming damage, and then letting the regeneration pick up the rest of the slack. I was thinking that Integration might be the best place for something like this. I think the 9.375% (unenhanceable) resist all values that were put into Reconstruction would fit better into Fast Healing for a few reasons: The resistance would always be active without needing to worry about keeping the buff up every 60 seconds. It wouldn't take away from current slotting options (currently we're able to slot Resist enhancements/IOs into Reconstruction) Having the resistance in Fast Healing will make it similar to other powers like High Pain Tolerance in Willpower or True Grit in Shield Defense, while keeping a unique Regen flavor. With the scaling resists added, this power will now differ from other versions of Fast Healing and will need to be renamed anyway. Moving the resists here will prevent the need to also rename Reconstruction by keeping that power as it is currently. As stated above, I think the 15% Res(Toxic) we already have should stay here, and remain enhanceable. Toxic damage isn't prominent with many enemy groups (currently) but it is still extremely helpful with lower level Vahz and quite possibly will remain so once Freaklok are introduced. Toxic resist has always been the one resist type that Regen has ever had going for it in any meaningful way, and I think it's important to the overall performance of the set even if it isn't something we see very frequently (right now). If anything, I think Regen could use even more Toxic Resist... have you ever fought a big group of Arachnids on a regen character? I like this overall. I see that some End/Rec/Slow debuff resistance was worked in here, which is fantastic. I'd personally prefer the extra 10% base HP to be fully enhanceable to start, and scale it down to half/non-enhanceable during testing if needed. Would also like to see the scaling Regeneration start from 90% health instead of 75%, making it 0-180% based on current HP%. I like the smaller cooldown and don't really mind the lower +Max HP and Heal. I don't think I'd mind it at all if the +10% MaxHP on Perseverance was fully enhanceable. Great step towards not feeling like Hasten would be required, at least for this power. I feel like Regen could make use of a Heal over Time a bit more than a slightly higher regen%. It would compliment the set more IMO, and being the only toggle in the set, Integration seems like a prime place for an HoT. If anything, I think the addition of a HoT here would make it more reasonable for the suggested regen scaling in Fast Healing, Perseverance and Resilience to start at 75% health instead of 90%. Just throwing out numbers here, but what if Instead of bumping the 50% unenhanceable Regeneration to 100%, we added an unenhanceable HoT for about 3% of Max Health? That would equal something like a 45hp heal every 2s at base HP, and around a 75hp heal every 2s with dull (numb) pain active on a Brute. Yes, this is a good bit more powerful than just a 50% +regen buff, however this would actually be the strength needed in order to bring regen up into an equivalent ratio matching just Willpowers regeneration capabilities. OR while I'm not particularly fond of making an RttC clone, it would probably make the scaling in smaller encounters feel less OP than the above. So perhaps more ideally, Integration could be made into an aura that scales per enemy, not unlike RttC, but with a scaled HoT instead of scaling +regeneration. Just tossing the same numbers again, but something like a 0.3% of Max HP heal per enemy in range, up to 10, for a total of 3% Max HP heal every 2s when fully saturated? With perma Dull (Numb) Pain, on a Brute, this would work out to be around a 7.5hp heal every 2s per enemy, or the equivalent of 3.75hp/s regen per enemy which is slightly less than what RttC gets fully slotted (4.04hp/s per enemy). At base HP (for a Brute) it would be equivalent to 2.25hp/s regen... or just over half of what RttC is capable of. Oh, and add Fear Protection to Integration. It doesn't make sense that someone who can regenerate anything and revive from dead would be susceptible to fear. Again, the scaling regeneration could start at 90% health, but otherwise this looks good. The lower recharge is a plus (even if I'd personally prefer it to be lower still) and the Heal/Regen Strength boost is more than welcome, I'm wondering "why" on the unenhanceable Resistances now though... you've specifically tagged "29.8% Str(Regen,Heal)" as the boost effects, so unless I'm mistaken, it wouldn't buff the resists anyway. Truth be told, this power seems redundant with Return to Glory. I'd rather see it replaced with something else entirely rather than have two nearly identical powers in the set. Aside from that, a 5 second duration increase for a 60 second recharge increase seems harsh to me. Even taking the strength of the power and lack of a crash into account I'd think a 60 second recharge increase would at least warrant a 15s duration increase... unless you added a revive or something to it 😉 I don't have any grand ideas on what to replace it with specifically, but "Indestructible" seems a fitting power name for regeneration. "You harness your indestructible nature, pushing your body to its limits. As a result you can now move faster and strike your foes harder, using excessive force that would destroy the limbs of a lesser being. your body can heal so fast in this focused state that it actually causes you to have a measure of resistance to attacks, repelling bullets and blades alike by rapidly healing at the moment of impact." +20% recharge, +20% speedrunning/jumping, +30% damage, +30% resist(all but psi), +300% regeneration for 60 seconds on a 240s recharge or something? Just spitting random numbers, no idea if that would be balanced. I'm sure someone else could come up with something better. I like the overhaul here but I think the recharge would be fine at 300s for a T9 with a crashless, short duration buff that has a revive bundled in. I don't think it would be a big deal to leave the Stun Protection in, regardless of how prominent it is in the set. I actually got stunned to death on my regen Stalker a few times while fighting Freakshow in the 30s back on live. The old adage applies... "better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it". I didn't have it at the time. The Fear protection makes sense though, it's a nice addition and should probably be included with Integration as well, because what does someone who can instantly heal any damage really have to fear? Clowns maybe?

Let me start by saying I think you've done a great job thinking this through and trying to balance the level of power that would be available. It's not my intention to belittle the amount of effort you've put in, or to suggest that it's a poor idea. Quite the contrary. I'm very impressed with the suggestion as a whole, as well as the work you've put into fleshing it out and the effort to solicit feedback for improvement. The two camps you mention here though, I don't think I fit very firmly into either one, but perhaps rather equally in both, because I believe they are both correct... or would be at different times, given to circumstance. Allow me to try and explain what I mean: Currently I think your formula would allow for the mechanic to perform at varying levels ranging from substantively underpowered at times to grossly overpowered at others, and very occasionally striking a balance of the two. Granted, there is no actual math involved in that assumption but I think it could be clearly evident to anyone by comparing with %chance to-hit values that are already in the game and how often we can miss an attack even at a constant +95% to-hit. At times you may never miss an attack for several minutes, and others you can miss several times in a row. More often than not, you will only miss once in a while. Even though some of your values are lower than 5%, it will still have the potential for the same manner of hit streaks and misses, only reversed. The misses become hits and the hits, misses. *Edited for clarity* You'll be hitting the +1-4 range most often (by design), which would be *virtually* no difference than current, especially vs an AV and would be just as underpowered as current. Occasionally you may get a +54 or +100 mag but it will be random enough that it will be as likely to land on a minion at the start of a mission as the AV at the end (unless you're doing missions full of nothing but AV/GMs). Further, the longer an AV lasts, the greater the chance to get that super-mag during the fight, and also a greater chance to get a "streak" during the fight. This is all before buffing our chances to land a super-mag with each control we use. Add that buffing, along with the super-mags and it substantially increases the overall ability to become over-powered. In that scenario, once the AV is held the first time, they will become a statue for the remainder because the super-mag is enough to overcome the Purple Patch and you will be constantly buffing your %chance through using controls while they're held. I'm of the mind that Controllers should have at least equal, if not slightly superior controls to (perma) Dominators. Controllers can get the damage of their Primary up to near Dom levels, but they will never deal more damage, even with buffs, because Dominators have both a higher base and more ways to deal damage... and can still be buffed externally. Controllers have to "work" to get near the same damage output as Doms, why shouldn't Doms need to "work" (aka get permadom) to get to the Control level of Controllers? Controllers get buff/debuff, Doms get mez protection and self-buffs (BuildUp, PowerUp etc). Doms trade their survivability for more damage, Controllers have to trade both their damage AND their control for... what exactly? being a "force multiplier"? The damage loss is understandable for that reason, but not both IMHO. Yes, it could directly scale by having a %chance for a much higher mag like that. If we figure a 20% chance is equal to one in five casts, and 5 casts from a Permadom would equal (m6*5=mag30) then a 20% chance for a Mag-15 Overpower would more or less equal that over time (m15+(m3*5)=mag30). More often than not this alone would probably make us equal, but it could potentially still leave us at half their strength some of the time, or at double their strength others, depending on RNG. In essence, it would leave us no better than we currently are, at minimum, and far superior to a permadom at max. Not really an ideal solution there, I agree. But what if we looked outside of just Overpower for a solution? I personally think it would be a bit more viable, and balanced, to increase the Controllers base magnitude by +1, giving them an initially stronger base control value in comparison to Doms. After that, we could then use Overpower to "shore up" the remaining difference between "just" Dom and "perma" Dom using a much smaller (and more controllable) modifier. Doing it this way would close the gap between the highest and lowest performance metrics in the first example, while substantially increasing the reliability of ending up with a comparable +Mag. Now we could use the 20% chance for a +6 mag Overpower you stated above (instead of that huge +15 mag), and come out with (m6 + (m4*5)= m26). This puts a Controller at Mag 26 vs a Permadoms Mag 30 with 5 casts, on average. There will still be dips and spikes, which could be as low as mag 20 (no overpowers, but still an improvement vs the current low of mag 15) and as high as mag 32 with a very rare possibility of hitting mag 38. This would put us on nearly equal footing with Doms in relation to being able to punch through an AVs hold protection. This could be tweaked further by offering a buff/debuff per teammate to the +%chance/-mag. Personally, I'd add a +15% duration and +20% Overpower-chance buff per teammate along with a subsequent -1 mag reduction per teammate (all capping at 3 allies max). Ultimately this would equate to an 80% chance for mag 7 hold (base mag 4 + mag 3 overpower) and a 45% control duration buff, on a team of 4 or more players. In this scenario, we'd be capable of +1 mag more than a permadom, per hold, but only 80% of the time... and we'd have a slightly better control duration to compensate that difference. All together I believe this would make a Controller nearly as reliably powerful as a permadom Dominator on average. It would also be much easier to implement than a completely custom solution since we already have all the necessary in-game powers with these functions to do so. For the most part I think it would only entail changing some values to accomplish. I think you more or less succeeded in shifting the balance between those two things, but overshot the marks a bit too far and landed in the realms of 'too powerful, too unreliable' and 'too weak, too reliable'. I may have to go back and take a 2nd (or 3rd) look though. Charts and tables were never my strong suite. 😄

I've read through the entire thread and I don't necessarily dislike the idea. In fact I think it's fairly interesting, if not a bit overly complicated. Still, I have to say... this one sentence stands out to me as being both the most obvious, and easiest solution to implement. You could tweak your formula here to come out with very similar performance to Doms while maintaining a completely different and unique way of getting there, and still be at least equally able to hold AVs/GMs. It could also be substantively easier to implement without all of the variable %chances. Unless the overall end goal is to make Controllers able to occasionally one-shot hold AVs and GMs? Frankly, that would be overpowered at times no matter how low the %chances are. You would still run into streaks and streak-breakers making you often useless, and sometimes OP. Possibly game-breaking OP. Edit to add: I’m not 100% sure, but there may also be a lower limit for %chance similar to procs, or even hit chance... which may not allow anything below 5%. There are no %chances to trigger below that value in the game that I’m aware of. If so, it would make the entire idea unworkable without changing those values.

I've eyeballed this threads title a few times already while browsing... Just haven't had an ideal time to give it a proper read. While my comment in that link was purely just a random thought, I do find your topic interesting and I'd be happy to look through it at some point soon(tm). No guarantees on whether or not I'll have any worthy input, of course, but I do appreciate the invitation. Thank you 🙂

I know... takes the words right outta your mouth, doesn’t it? 🤣

Funny, I was going to reply that the “not good” comment was likely just in avoidance of a very long explanation. I’m glad to see that there’s ongoing work to develop a new launcher. The standalone feature sounds fantastic, as do the changes to visitedmaps. Thanks for taking the time to write out those explanations @Number Six

I have to wonder, is the Map data change a fix for the loss of map data when switching between live and beta server manifests? Or other manifests in general for that matter? Possibly just preparation for a new launcher... or some other reason entirely 🙂

Ahahaha... you're right, I do... so sorry about that! I had your name stuck in my head from another thread 🙂 Edit* and apparently I did it more than once! I should really stop posting when limited on sleep!

I have a completely off the cuff pulled from thin air random errant thought suggestion for making Controllers somewhat more useful against Purple Patch AVs and Incarnate content. Wanna hear it? Ok! here goes, why don't we just..... remove Controllers from the game? There I said it. No I'm just kidding, I'm kidding! All Jokes aside though, I honestly really like Controllers and I did actually have a real idea regarding this. Whether it's any good, or even workable... I leave to you all for discussion... or to ignore. Your choice. The actual idea was to let Controllers have a chance to Critically strike, but only when Containment isn't present on a target. If Containment is present, it would work as currently. I don't think we have anything in-game currently that can do something like this, maybe a reverse-combo system or something like that? Your powers get a ring if your target doesn't have containment, and then the ring goes away once you apply containment, perhaps? OR alternatively... (this one just popped into my head too) What if we could somehow make it so that Containment damage can still apply even if the actual control fails to subdue the target due to control immunity, resistances or whatever? Perhaps using a control could "PowerGrant $Target TempPower_Containment" for 10s and make it unresistable or something? Could possibly be done similar to how the old Tanker inherent used to work on live, or some other way, I don't know... I'm pretty much thinking this up as I type. To be clear, I'm not saying to make the controls themselves unresistable, but rather to apply a debuff to the target(s) of the control, called "Containment" (for ease of communication), so that the Controllers powers *think* that containment is active on the target, and would then deal containment damage.

What a wonderful post! I have to say, I wasn't expecting you to do all of that in relation to a hypothetical tangent... but it's marvelous, so Thank You! Hopefully the City of Data... uhhh... data, is correct. I don't know that I'd be able (willing?) to convert the in-game numbers to Tank values. Even if I wanted to, my tendencies are to avoid doing math whenever possible. In light of that, I'm just gonna "borrow" a few pieces of your post if you don't mind... It does appear that Energy Drain would make things a bit too robust, given everything else. So I can see the hang-up now. Still, I can't help but wonder if there would be an "easy" fix to make it possible. What if we removed Energy Cloak and replaced it with the same power that (more or less) replaced it on Stalkers... Disrupt? It's a PBAoE foe Disorient toggle with an 8' radius that pulses a Mag 2 stun every 4s. I mean, if you think about it... Tanks don't really need a stealth toggle anyway, do they? (Dark Armor doesn't count 😛). Based on the numbers you provided, it would be a 5% (unslotted) loss in defense. So, I stole... *ahem*... "borrowed" your tables for a comparison and adjusted the base EA numbers by -5% to account for the loss of Energy Cloak: Damage Type Energy Aura Ice Armor Smashing/Lethal 17% def, 12.5% res 18% def Energy 22.5% def, 12.5% res 18% def Fire 20% def 25% res Cold 20% def 90%+ res Negative 14% def, 12.5% res 18% def Toxic 12.5% res 20% res Those numbers still look reasonable to me. EA remains best with E, still good with F/C, slightly worse for S/L (but has resists) and remains worst for N, but still not horrible. I took the same table again, and adjusted the above to add in saturated (unslotted) Energy Drain and Energy Absorbtion values into the mix, for a side-by-side view: Damage Type Energy Aura - w\ Energy Drain (saturated) Ice Armor - w\ Energy Absorbtion (saturated) Smashing/Lethal 23% def, 12.5% res 25% def Energy 28.5% def, 12.5% res 25% def Fire 26% def 25% res Cold 26% def 90%+ res Negative 20% def, 12.5% res 25% def Toxic 12.5% res 20% res With these base values and standard triple-defense SO slotting EA would be at 35.88% S/L, 44.46% Energy, 40.56% F/C and 31.2% Neg. A 3-def SO slotted Weave and the two Unique +3%def IOs would get all S/L/F/C/N values at or above softcap, meanwhile Energy defense would be approaching Incarnate softcap at that point. Keep in mind that this is all with fully-saturated Energy Drain, which needs targets. In contrast, Ice would end up at 39% S/L/E/N with triple-SO defense slotting. So with Ice, a slotted Weave OR the two Unique +3%def IOs would put you over softcap to S/L/E/N. Overall, it looks to me like EA would be pretty well balanced (vs Ice) at Tanker values, by just trading Energy Cloak for Disrupt. and just to stay the slightest amount on topic, The stun component of Disrupt would add synergy for pairing with Energy Melee. You see? We're still talking (in a very roundabout way) about EM here! Seriously though, I don't want to derail the thread much further but I would like to hear your opinion on whether this all seems accurate to you as well, @siolfir. *Edited because I tagged the wrong person, lol 🙂

Yes, I recall that post and conversation. I only asked in order to confirm your stance definitively, because the other details you mentioned above weren't really discussed in that thread. 🙂 Now, I don't want to derail the thread excessively, but I wanted to address this: I've only recently used EA on a Stalker myself (currently level 28), and once a very long time ago (on live) with a Brute that never got out of his teens. I've never used Ice Armor at all (simply because I don't like the FX). So, far from an expert with either. From what I can tell though, Ice Armor has more or less all of the same utility that Energy Aura does, with a more accessible +MaxHP click, Same Energy Drain with +def per target for "easy" softcap, and a T9 with healing (that is probably taken far more often than EAs T9), it also has a damage aura and vaunted DeBuffs. EA in turn gets some stealth and also has the +recharge-self/-recharge-foe aura that is a per target buff/debuff. I think they're both fairly balanced against eachother for an apples to apples comparison. The only real difference (defensively) is that Ice gets no F/C/T defense (but has capped Cold resists and decent 25% Fire resists instead, both unslotted) while EA, if on a Tank, would have probably about 15-20% max to its resists for S,L,N,T and maybe slightly better for Energy resist, But no F/C resist. At least these are the main differences I see from a very quick Passover in Mids. (Disclaimer: Tank EA resist numbers were pulled out of a hat, based loosely on differences between other tank/brute armors available to both). Obviously it's not my decision to make, but given the similarities... and the fact that SR, Ice and Shield are all available on Tanks already... I don't see any outlier reasons why EA couldn't (or shouldn't) be ported over. The only possible explanation I can come up with, is that EA can get capped defense debuff resistance on top of everything, but only while the T9 is active. I suppose the +recharge per target aura could be another consideration, but I don't think that's something that would improve by being on a Tank over a Brute.

Haha I have two of those right now! A DA/Psi Tank that after nearly 10 hours in the creator I ended up using one of my mains spare costume files just so I could finish creation. I've made several attempts since then but nothing that quite fits. The other is an EM/Shield Stalker.... a STALKER for god's sake... that I'm almost never going to see the costume on anyway... but there's something that's just off and I can't resolve it. I'm happy with the base design... mostly, and the coloring... mostly. But up to about 40 different variations of the same costume (more or less) now, and I can spend a couple hours just cycling through them until... "oh wait! what if I do this" and end up making another variation that I'm not quite 100% happy with. lol We all are, even at the best of times. lol 🙂

Hmm, I suppose that is a lot more to consider than just +defense... at the same time I'm not sure I feel it would be any more unreasonable of a buff, especially on a largely Single Target oriented set that could typically have more enemies surrounding it for longer periods than a more AoE oriented set. If anything I think it would serve to provide a unique niche for EM and "level the playing field" against other sets in regards to survivability vs kill speed. Martial Arts can get +10% to all defense positions and also has Disorient. Dark Melee has a self heal, reliable debuff potential and a great +Dam boost. Super Strength has its huge AoE and long duration +dam/+tohit with Rage. So I don't think it would be out of line with tools that other melee sets have access to. In your honest opinion, Do you think a 15s duration, 43% +special buff would push it into being too OP? I think the difference in debuff resistance somewhat balances out at least some of the extra tools EA gets over SR. It more or less requires the static resistances and self heal because otherwise it likely wouldn't survive when defense fails. It needs more layers because it can't perfectly rely on defense by design. Energy drain I see as more of a thematic staple, although it does have a small +def component per target I think. Overall I don't think it would have as easy of a time getting to softcap as SR does either. Blaster Energy Manipulation gets Power Boost, which is a (close to) 80% +special buff only (no +dam/+tohit) but is generally where I got the idea. That and it's thematically relevant. Power Build Up is in the Defender APP Power Mastery and gives the +dam/+tohit with a 98% +special buff, which was pointed out to me by @siolfir and I felt it would be a better choice since it maintains the normal Build Up function that it would be replacing. *Edited because I realized I've been tagging the wrong person in these posts... more than once! oh dear me...

I often go through a somewhat similar process. Days of planning and modifying. Endless thoughts from waking to sleeping (and sometimes even dreaming lol)... except it also extends to my costumes and color choices. I also don't typically burn respecs unless it's a Eureka! moment... I just copy the build to test server and make changes there. Lately I've been super lazy with travel powers though, just grabbing Flight for ease. Funny because I think I only ever had one character with Flight back on live.