Apparition

Yep. Some builds can solo Lusca, but they are rare, expensive, and it is going to take a while.

Of course, that comes with the side effect of both LGTF/Apex/Tin Mage/regular RWZ mission teams frequently being broken into two different RWZ maps (sometimes taking up to several minutes to regroup and get everyone onto the same map), and preventing other people from joining the MSR in progress. Neither of which are an issue with instanced MSRs.

Just keep the Windows 10 night mode on permanently, which substantially cuts blue light. See: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/simple-questions-what-night-light-windows-10-and-how-use-it/ If you use Linux, get f.lux. https://justgetflux.com/linux.html

110% seconded. As far as I am concerned, there is no longer a legitimate reason to run a zone MSR. Not a single one. Zone MSRs take up three times as much server resources as an instanced MSR for no reason. Instanced MSRs are better in every way. A few people complained last night about people running stealth auras last night during my MSR. I let them know that one of the people running stealth auras was me, with Shadow Fall. :P Rikti not spawning in the bowl and/or not following taunters due to people using stealth auras in the bowl is a myth that was debunked long ago. The real reasons why there are periods of no Rikti in the bowl are because of a lack of taunters, lazy taunters, people fighting on the rim and/or on ramps, or a combination of the three. Usually a combination of the three. It's hard to taunt Rikti to the bowl when the majority of the league are under level 20. :P

Martial Arts and Street Justice would both work well with Willpower. If you don't mind using weapons, War Mace and Katana would both be good as well. As Bill said, Super Reflexes and Shield Defense would be fine choices for secondary as well. You've got quite a few options to pick from. All would work well. It just depends on if you want single target damage (Street Justice), mostly single target with some AoE (Martial Arts and Katana), or a good mixture of both (War Mace).

That wouldn't work as not everyone plays blue side. :P I play red side exclusively.

Yep. And in threads where people are asking for advice on Corruptors, you'll usually find someone chiming in with "Make a Defender instead, they're better! Damage procs!" Yes, damage procs are a substantially large part of the problem and need to be nerfed.

It is. I was answering Crysis’ question about the Annihilation proc in Piercing Rounds.

FWIW, the Goliath War Walker in Boomtown and Seed of Hamidon cannot be soloed as far as I am aware. The rest can.

-Res procs work on Piercing Rounds while special ammunition is loaded. From a friend who tested this for me while I was forming my MSR tonight:

Then they have no role as most teams have a Tanker and Scrappers do more damage.

A Brute cannot reach the damage cap on its own. It would require outside buffs. Meanwhile, the Tanker has greater survivability and similar (less, but not significantly so as the tests have shown), damage on its own.

And the thing is, people are looking at that. An optimized power gaming endgame team has room for at most two melee characters. A tank and one melee damage dealer. Brutes are now outclassed in both, so it makes more sense to bring a Tanker and a Scrapper or Stalker.

Yep. Tankers were overbuffed and do too much damage now.

No. What I am saying is that Brutes need something because as they stand in the game now, they do not tank as well as Tankers (or do not tank at all if there is a Tanker on the team and there usually is), do not do as much AoE damage as Tankers, and just plain do not do as much damage as Scrappers. If you have the option of Tanker, Brute, or Scrapper for your team, there is no legitimate, objective reason to pick Brute. They no longer have a clear function on teams, and anything they can do can be done better by either Tanker or Scrapper. That's one of the reasons why I'm having so much trouble staying with a melee character now. I've been a red sider since City of Villains launched in October 2005. I've always preferred red side to blue side, including the ATs. I do not like Tankers, and I do not like Scrappers. However, I can no longer legitimately come up with an objective reason to play a Brute on Homecoming. Not when Tankers tank better and do more AoE damage, and when Scrappers just plain do more damage. So I've just stopped playing melee altogether.

Rikti mothership raids are not as rewarding as Hamidon raids. You can do four back-to-back Hamidon raids in one hour and get 160 reward merits and a Hamidon origin enhancement. In the meantime, one instanced Rikti mothership raid will take about a hour from start to finish and net you about 45 to 50 reward merits, and friends have directly told me that the reason that they don't join my MSRs are because they are not rewarding enough in comparison to other content. Part of me would like to see the converter ratio reduced down to 20 Vanguard merits for every one reward merit, which would increase the net haul to about 70 to 75 reward merits. However, I also remember the days early on Homecoming when people just farmed MSRs non-stop.

Entering a mission while the team leader is in another zone does screw up the mission difficulty. It defaults to +0 instead of whatever difficulty the team leader has set.

Yep. This is why you usually get another thirty seconds to a minute added after the timer on MSRs reaches zero, and why sometimes on a MSR I can use my Lore pets twice, and others three times. Time dilation.

It is pretty much necessary for Masterminds on Rikti mothership raids if you want to take down the drop ship.

I second Corruptor and add Water Blast as well. You have stacking slows and some knockdown, leaving mobs vulnerable to all of the delightful Scourging AoE damage.

Blaster would be what you're looking for. A DP/Sonic Blaster would do well.

No. Sonic Resonance is an absolutely terrible Corruptor secondary for soloing. It's pretty strictly team-based only. If you want solo, go with Rad, Dark, Time, or Nature. I say that as someone whose namesake is a Beam Rifle/Sonic Resonance Corruptor. Also, Sonic Resonance is better on a Defender than a Corruptor, sadly. For the better -res values, the better AoE mez protection, and most importantly Vigilance. Sonic Resonance eats endurance for breakfast, but it's not so bad on Defenders thanks to the Vigilance endurance reduction.

Yep. That's why I don't team for story arc missions. I like to go through at my own pace, read everything, and be able to do it all if I so choose. You can't do any of that if you team.

That actually is the topic. I know that Brutes can tank. I have done it and can do it well as my Brutes have Taunt. The point is that the Brute can no longer effectively tank while there's also a Tanker on the team, unless jumping ahead of the rest of the team and effectively soloing the mission. If you don't do that, then the Brute is effectively a Scrapper that does less DPS, so the team would be better off with a Scrapper.

My point is that Brutes are now in the position where they can no longer effectively Tank on most teams unless they jump a couple of groups ahead of the rest of the team and effectively solo for the entirety of the mission, and they do not do as much damage as Scrappers. So that pretty much means that on teams they are no longer as effective in either role they were designed for.