Parabola

I would never skip the passive defence powers on any SR character. They provide defence debuff resistance (which you want at the 95% cap), and a nifty scaling resistance mechanic which increases as your health drops. Sadly I've never found invoke panic to be worthwhile and similarly aid self requires a lot of investment for not enough return in my opinion. I'm levelling a SR brute at the minute and I've simply amended my usual insp combining macros (everything to reds) to leave greens behind and added another 'eat greens' macro into the tray slot where my self heal would be if I had one. It's not perfect but it seems to do the job so far.

I cannot imagine melee set auras ever being granted pull, it would make those that got it outperform the others to a huge degree. Whirlpool does make thematic sense but it is a rain power and as such has avoid baked in. Adding pull would work against this and again make whirlpool outperform other rains massively. Dark pit I could get alongside simply because it's such a poor power currently. Telekinesis is a power that really deserves to be reworked into something else entirely and making it pull to a targetted enemy would be as good as anything. Not sure I can see why chain induction should be on the list mechanically or thematically?

This has always been the case. Their explode power has an interruptible wind up and taunt or just about any debuff aura (all?) will prevent them from completing it. The same is true for various other enemy powers such as sky raiders summoning shield generators.

The blaster version is smaller than the Trick Arrow one. 15' I think. I'm not entirely sure but it might keep the same graphic so it looks a bit confusing but its area of effect is noticeably tighter.

I agree that brutes now feel left behind to a certain extent. The tank buffs were really powerful and they eclipse brute performance in many situations. Scrappers are also squeezing them from the other side with IO fueled mitigation and much better ato's. Performance across the AT's does of course vary from powerset to powerset. Some react better to the way one AT or another works which is great from the point of view of making the game interesting but it does muddy balance discussions. I play a lot of melee, and often test the same combination of powersets across the three AT's to see where it performs best. In far too many cases I really struggle to make a convincing case for the brute version other than ease of play early on. As soon as the level increases enough for slotting to become a real factor (and tanks can fill out attack chains), brutes often start to feel lacking. For my endgame builds I'm either looking to do challenge type things where the tanks extra mitigation really shines or obliterate the more mundane content in which case scrappers are tough enough and do more damage. There isn't much room for brutes in that. Scrappers and brutes are always going to tread on each others toes as they have such similar focus but for tanks to be (excuse the pun) muscling in on the damage side does seem a little off to me. It's telling that I have only one lv50 brute (my main, basically retired), compared to 5 lv50 tanks given that I don't really enjoy playing as 'the tank'. They are all built and played like brutes (no taunt, chew down reds as fast as possible, built for damage), but they are better at it than the equivalent brutes because they are considerably tougher and get close enough in damage. I'd start by giving brutes much better ato's as both their procs are somewhat forgettable. They only get the one recharge bonus in the ato sets too which could be considered a disadvantage compared to the scrapper ato's. Changes to damage scales have been mentioned above and that might be a way to go. It would certainly benefit brutes with sets like claws and dark melee that have a built in +damage mechanic. Another thought that I'll throw out there is what about giving brutes some of the arc/radius/max targets bonus that tanks get? If they had 50% of that buff then that would reinforce their position between the other two AT's. Scrappers would do the most damage but concentrated on fewer targets, tanks would do the least damage to the most targets and brutes would be between the two. I strongly suspect that the devs won't give brutes any buffs until they are comfortable with the farming meta though. Cap P (I think it was) has said before that afk farming in particular is on the radar...

Frigid protection is the sustain in /ice and as such has massive end recovery built in (compare its base numbers against stamina). I see far too many blaster builds where people are slotting end procs in sustains or adding slots to health/stamina for them rather than slotting directly for end mod. On most blasters the slotting priority should be two 50+5 pure end mods in the sustain. After that health and stamina can often be left at base slots with the panacea proc in health and a performance shifter proc in stamina. I don't think I have a single blaster that needs more recovery than this. As for the other procs I'm generally wary of slotting procs in auras. Yes the aura is huge and autohit but the tick rate will be slow. If you have slots to burn then maybe try it but I'd certainly avoid the -recharge one as it doesn't seem do a huge amount.

No-one knows what might happen if an ip owner starts taking an interest and decides to cause problems. I may be doing yourself and others in this thread a disservice but I'm assuming none of us are experts in the field. But what may or may not happen doesn't matter in the slightest either way. All that matters is that we've been asked not to do it and it is really easy to avoid doing. It's this last point that gets me the most irritated with these debates. It's not like they've asked us to do something difficult, just avoid copying any existing ip in name or costume. It isn't rocket surgery. If someone can only get enjoyment by playing as wolver1ne then the unfortunate fact is that this isn't the game/servers for them. It isn't allowed here and that is simply all there is to it.

The problem with this is afk farming. The devs have already stated they aren't all that happy with it and this would just make it that bit more effective. Even if it was limited to one support power and one attack that would basically be used for burn and hasten (if only to cycle burn faster) in most cases. That limitation would also cut out the two most legitimate uses for two auto fires I can think of which is hasten and domination or hasten and clicky mez protection. Perhaps if a second auto fire could be allowed but only if both are used on support abilities then it might be more feasible?

Lol. I really appreciate good old fashioned curmudgeonliness! I confess to being a bit mystified by the whole streaming thing myself but I can't really see how this is going to change things much for me either way. If nothing else at least this will stop people moaning about not being able to stream so that's a net positive I guess?

This is one of the interesting things about building characters in coh. You can shore up weaknesses by adding in powers from epic pools or planning on inspiration use. There is a level of fungibility between different elements that helps to prevent there being one clearly best answer. It does make it very difficult to make tests like this completely fair though. Any restriction or lack of a restriction will inevitably favour some builds over others. I agree that being able to chew down a load of reds would have a bigger impact than taking the occasional yellow but that does mean that some epic pools are clearly better choices than others. Of course the reverse would also be true, if insps weren't allowed then anyone without tactics or FA in their build would potentially really suffer. Anyway, I like this test because it covers both aoe and single target performance and it's against one of the less convenient enemy groups in the game. When I have some time I'll see if I can do a few runs but I'm sure I won't be scaring anyone with my times!

Just watched a couple of these. You might want to silence the 'power not recharged' sound, it drives me absolutely nuts and you seem to be an impatient button masher like me! Also I find the no insps but yellows rule a bit odd, I generally build to have focused accuracy so I can't be blinded but of course that means forgoing something like fireball. It does mean that all I ever need are reds but the trade off I make is penalised under these rules vs the trade off someone else makes by taking fireball and using yellows to avoid blindness. Would it not be more fair to either ban insps entirely or to say that you have to start with an empty insp tray but you can use whatever drops in whatever way you like? I like the idea of these tests though, something a lot more 'real world' than pylon testing.

I take energy all the time unless I really, really need extra attacks. The endurance management is useful depending on build but the real prize is focused accuracy and its sweet tohit and perception debuff protection. If you have any ambition to take on the more irritating mobs late game then this is beyond useful. That said you are listing the two premier farming builds so my guess would be that you might not be all that concerned about your performance against carnies/rularuu/cot/etc? If that is the case then go with energy if you need endurance management or whatever if not. Do you really need more attacks? It's been an age since I logged into my spine/fire but I'm not sure she even took an epic.

I'd maybe do something more like this: I'm not a fan of BFR but you could easily drop one of the first two blasts for it if you were set on it. Frost Breath is very much worth the slots in my opinion and with Artillery and eventually Intuition Radial it has decent range.

Try thermal. Good mixture of buffs, heals and debuffs. It can bring something to any team and is active and engaging to play. Blast set is largely up to you, if sonic is out then dark has decent debuffs and utility.

If you want to have no melee powers at all then an arch/ta or ice/ta blaster might be a good bet. I have both and they are great for standing back and not getting your hands dirty.

That is incredibly generous of you! I'll pm but my global is the same as my forum handle (this has prompted me to capitalise my forum handle which I've meaning to do for ages). Dark/atomic will be an interesting combination for sure. I've been meaning to make an atomic for ages, probably pairing it with radiation blast for the pbaoe and holds (I'm too lazy to reposition during combat!).

A couple of thoughts. I'd pull slots out of Grant Cover and Phalanx Fighting to properly slot Weave and Maneuvers. Both need end reduction and are better places to slot for defence. Combat Jumping isn't really worth slotting for defence unless you are out of options elsewhere, I don't see the Shield Wall unique anywhere so this would be a good place for it. Drop Bash and take Shatter which is arguably the best power in the set. It is high enough dps to be treated as a single target attack so is a lynchpin of both the best single target and aoe attack chains. Speaking of attack chains I'd think about taking Hasten. You ideally want to be able to chain Jawbreaker->Clobber->Shatter (won't be gapless until Ageless though). A quick stab at the kind of thing I'd do (but I wouldn't take the powers in this order!):

Can’t stand them as well. Wish we had alternate non-weapon choices. I'd like to have the option to use alternative elemental sword animations for all attacks in those sets. All attacks with or without swords would probably be easier on the eye than some with and some without.

My biggest gripe with psi melee is that all the attacks are a mixture of smash/lethal and psi. So not only do you have issues with enemy resistances but you don't have any pure psi attacks to punch through things like moment of glory. It really feels like they missed a trick there.

Yes you are absolutely right. It is the heal that lets electric down badly comparing the three sets not the raw resist values. I do think that rad wins out on holes though. You can get quite a bit of psi res from impervium armour and the aegis unique to shore up that hole and almost nothing does enough cold damage to bother you. The energy hole in dark is much more of a problem and elec is never going to be able to really close that toxic hole without making build compromises (having to go 6 slot on lots of sets).

Yeah it would be but I wouldn't like to try to manage the end problems!

I'll throw in my favourite blaster so far - dark/ta. This is a blast-troller combination that might be without equal. You have access to: single target and aoe immobilise, aoe knockdown (with proc), aoe slow patch, two single target holds, aoe stun, non notifying aoe -perception and of course stacking -tohit. In fact there are so many options it's hard to take them all - I'll talk about the choices I made below. It plays almost entirely at range and unlike many combinations it has the tools to actually keep your opponents at range. The theme is probably the biggest challenge with these powersets - I went with an animated scarecrow type character (hooded with pumpkin grin face), wielding a simple wooden bow and dressed in tattered robes. I took the fire epic mainly for bonfire (yet more control) but fire shield looks absolutely awesome with the rest of the theme. Mine is female but hovers permanently anyway so that dreadful male run animation wouldn't be too much of an issue. This is my build: I prefer dark blast to gloom even though gloom is very slightly better dpa in order to have one less dot attack. I would love to have taken and procced out ice arrow to have two holds but slots were tight chasing all the usual build goals and abyssal gaze wins out if you are only taking one. The build hits the ranged softcap but it is pretty safe long before that with all the control and -tohit. A few ff+rech firing from umbral torrent will tip hasten into perma territory. I also prefer only taking one build up type power so I don't feel like I'm constantly self buffing and upshot is great and adds another little burst of recharge. For incarnates the build gets a lot out of either musculature radial or intuition radial. I find it satisfying when a build uses many of the components of an alpha and here I preferred the extra end and immobilize duration over the hold and slow duration and bonus range (umbral torrent is already more than long enough and tenebrous tentacles has artillery in it for decent range there). Both boost -tohit and damage so either are good picks though. Clarion is almost certainly the first choice for destiny but I am still working my way up to that.

Fun idea for a thread @oedipus_tex. Also guaranteed to start many arguments! I more or less agree with your electric rankings but I think I like electric control more than you (its damage can be shored up a bit with procs on controllers and it seems to suit the blappy nature of most dominator pairings). Electric melee is top tier on stalkers but it's held back by weak single target and long animations on other AT's. Electric armour is great most of the time but the toxic hole can really hurt - I think I liked the set more before we had radiation armour to compare it to. Blast, yes loses too much damage for an unreliable secondary effect but I do love my elec/mm blaster where drain psyche keeps her alive long enough to actually do the draining, it does need the right pairing though. I can't really comment on the other versions. I'll have a go at Dark I think (all very much IMO of course!): Melee (tanks) - This set is so very good on tanks now. Really solid single target damage and really surprisingly good aoe (with some proc use for both). No longer needs shoring up with epic attacks (particularly if you can get some kind of aura damage or proc bomb out of your secondary) and still has all the fun and useful secondary effects. Soul drain is great with the tanks new meaty melee modifier. I rank this as the best tank melee set available and have it paired with five different primary sets so far. Armour (tanks/brutes) - A great armour set. Second only to radiation in potential resistance coverage and has the insanely good dark regeneration to fall back on time and time again. End issues are justifiably famous but easier to manage these days than ever before, kb has to be mitigated too and cloak of fear is sadly lacking in all areas. It is testament to how well the rest of the set works that it can carry those problems and still be top tier. Tanks and brutes have by far the better version because of the taunt aura and res caps. Miasma (all) - Still a good set but it is better solo than teamed in today's game. It is held back by slow animation times but if you have the time to get yourself set up you can do things that other support sets can't. Using darkest night to toggle pull into tar patch and then hitting the mobs with fearsome stare is a combo that I'll never get tired of. Blast (all) - Two different versions of this between blasters and defenders/corruptors but I think they function about as well as each other. Takes procs really well. If you're not going to proc then the set will likely drop right down the rankings (damage wise - still good for safety). Torrent/umbral torrent makes a very handy place for reliable ff+rech and tenebrous tentacles allows you to reliably play at range. Control (all) - This is a good control set but I prefer the miasma version. My biggest gripe is probably how the spectral hound doesn't seem to fit into any concept I come up with for a dark controller. Melee (scrappers/stalkers) - Great modifier for soul drain, much smaller aoes than tanks. Melee (brutes) - Brutes sadly miss out here - low modifier for soul drain which gets a bit lost in the fury bonus and small aoes. Armour (scrappers/stalkers) - No taunt aura and 75% res caps are a major handicap. Assault - Suffers from my biggest bugbear with the entire dominator AT - crappy mismatched aoe. Night fall is rubbish on all AT's but at least defenders and corruptors can ignore it and proc out torrent instead. Manipulation - Well at least it's an interesting set! The sustain is high maintenance, the damage aura is asking for trouble, soul drain isn't a good fit on a burst damage AT, shadow maul is less user friendly than any other manipulation pbaoe and dark consumption is totally unnecessary if you can remember to keep the sustain up.

To my now eternal shame I hadn't picked up on a single one of these. Now it makes more sense why there are two of them in each zone...

The powers maybe but in my mind I could never fit the Loyalists with being Heroes. It's not the most important thing about your suggestion - I just found it interesting to muse on!