Rylas

These are certainly solutions, but is that really how we're going to measure how properly a set functions? It seems we should be looking at the set itself, evaluating how it compares for endurance cost compared to other armor sets on their own merits, and then judging wether the set needs to be tweaked for end cost.

My main for a while was an Ice/EM Tank. Personally, I really enjoyed EM, but felt that it ended up getting a bit of heavy handed nerf mid-way through the game's life. I think the issue was Total Focus and Energy Transfer were "too" powerful and made EM perform just a little too well in the single-target DPS area. The answer was slowing the animation for these powers to really bad speeds. I don't know what the right answer would be (or if one was really needed) but it kind of broke the set a little for me. EM is one of the lowest for AoE DPS, and I thought this was the perfect offset to it's single target domination. The fact that Energy Transfer causes damage to you too was another good off-set for the set. Slowing down the punches just sucked for gameplay. I would have preferred a reduction in damage to that. The set *felt* fast with how quickly you handed out the punches. It certainly felt more energetic. That's me though. I remember too much of how it was. Someone else who only played it post-nerf might have a better opinion of it.

So which is it? Is the game not challenging with the aggro cap, or is it too difficult to tank +4/x8 Eden Trial? It's already been shown how easy you could Tank 50+ mobs with buffs from team mates, and it's been proven by history. There were literally entire map wipes going on in the days of dumpster diving. Currently, your arguments make it sound like you can't handle the challenge of an aggro cap, and would rather have it removed than work out a better strategy with your team. I get it, I love when my brute feels completely untouchable because I've been buffed to insane levels of defense, but there's not much challenge in keeping aggro once you've got it. But there is a challenge in deciding how you're going to manage that cap and the game provides plenty of ways to do so. Do you leave one group to the controller/s to manage so you can grab another group that's been pulled in from the side by ranged damage? Do you crowd hop between large groups to slow the damage to your team down long enough for them to heal and survive. The point is, once you'r able to handle 17 mobs without any concern, you're going to be handling 50 mobs without any concern. That doesn't make the game more challenging. No one's ever looked at the concept of limitless ability as one of challenge. In having limits we are challenged. edit — I'm aware I quoted two people. The fact that the argument comes from two directions is the main point.

It might help to make keep your point of reference to what would be base level; in this case, no adaptation running. And as for Defensive not being that nice for Brutes or Scrappers, I would argue there would be plenty of people who play either AT and would disagree. I enjoy Brutes and have found Defensive mode to be pretty helpful on smaller teams or teams without a Tanker to do aggro management. As for having informed decisions, I could have sworn the penalties for the forms was in the power description, but the last time I read them was I24 beta, so maybe those have changed. But I knew that about the set before playing it. You may have just missed it somewhere. *shrug* I'm not able to long in currently so I can't confirm that.

Well, yeah. Did you think you'd get to keep pumping out lots of damage while also getting a fair defensive boost? Or still be able to take a large beating and also boost DPS? It's a balance requirement. But those penalties aren't that bad. Adaptation is meant to be used so you can... adapt. I use Offensive when my survival isn't being pushed. Defensive to take alpha attacks. And Efficient between fights to recover. You can always pop an inspiration to offset penalties.

Mini? ;)

If we're just talking costume pieces, I don't see why they can't just add any and all player created pieces they consider acceptable (i.e. not adult rated).

Could this be something that's crowd sourced? Provide the frame work for people to create skins, and let the community submit new pieces for consideration?

Not surprising. At those levels, with Brutes lower multiplier on damage, it's gonna be hard seeing the higher damage without a lot of buffs. And since those levels make it difficult to take on large groups to ramp up the Fury, that's another reason early levels won't see a lot of difference. I played Tanks a lot before CoV. Then became a Brute player. Then eventually did both. You'll notice the damage difference by 30. But either way, you're gonna have a good time.

Agreed. Fortitude does way more on your Alpha than it will on your squishies who are dealing damage and control. Additionally, you don't need to worry about handing out Clear Mind to tankers/brutes/scrappers past the very early levels. They have built in powers in their sets for mez resist. Unless confuse is being used on them, it's a waste of your time in which you could be dealing damage or handing out other needed buffs.

Voted. For sure Fan Creations would be great to see. Might have to start illustrating my characters if they add it. Also, having a Market forum would be a good place to discuss the current drop rates and methods in place for curbing inflation. With the smaller population, I wonder if some of these things might need more tweaking, but would prefer to see what number crunchers would have to say.

I'm pretty sure it never was. I think proliferation still left some powersets out of some ATs specifically to push people into trying different ATs. SS was never a Scrapper option, like Ice Armor was never an Option for Brutes. I'd recommend going the Brute route. You get SS, and can achieve Tanker levels of survival with IOs. If it's /Inv, I don't think it would take too much to hit at least the S/L def soft cap, and you could put in a fair amount of recharge to really up the damage output.

That's a pretty fun concept. I might recommend one of the ally buffs should give the ally the ability to land crits. Thematically, it fits; the odds of landing just the right hit are increased. It would make it an incredibly unique set. It probably shouldn't be the same crit chance as Scrappers, but something slightly less often as that.

Can't put together a build since I'm at work, but I can recommend aiming for defense and then recharge. Specifically, smash/lethal defense. /Bio has a good mix of defense, resistance and heal/regen. If you can soft cap S/L, you'll be pretty tough. Add what recharge you can manage and you'll have your heal/regen powers up more often to shore up the occasional burst damage that gets through. If you're bad at putting together builds, try using this handy link for finding sets for the bonuses you're chasing.

Thanks! I take it I can use that to report bugs and not just player behavior.

So back during double XP weekend with many of the server drops and disconnects, I foolishly tried creating a character during all the instability. When I clicked to enter the game after creating the character, I was booted to the log-in and was told I lost connection. Once I was back in, the name of the character showed up in the character selection screen, but the character doesn't show up, and isn't able to be played. I wouldn't mind so much since we have a ludicrous amount of slots, but I need the name back and this non-character seems to have locked it. Any way to fix that?

Sounds like your IO build would be the main issue then. The one I had was softcapped for S/L and plenty of recharge, and was able to do way more than +1. But hey, we may just have play styles that work better for our preferred powersets. *shrug*

Pretty much this. I multi-boxed pre-sunset, but won't bother doing it here due to the limited resources of the servers.

Back during I24 Beta, I tested out a Staff/Bio brute and had a couple of /WP brutes on live. Both a solid powersets, but I think /Bio ended up being more fun to play. First, the Adaptation modes can bring a lot of variability in the early levels, so you can change your game play up based on solo'ing or teaming. It reaches admirable levels of rec/reg, but provides two damaging powers as well as two debuffs. On SO builds, the two will perform roughly equally, but my experience with IO'ing /Bio on Beta seemed to put /Bio at a much higher performance. Other may have a different experience, but once IOs are part of the equation, it's difficult for me not to say /Bio pulls ahead.

Not necessarily so. Look at Super Strength. As a set alone, it's AoE damage output isn't phenomenal, making it mostly a single target monster. Throw in perma-hasten and now you're reducing larger mob sizes while making use of the single target damage for bosses. That requires more than just spamming a couple of powers. Another good example would be sets that have end recovery powers but also have a high rate of end consumption. Because long recharge powers benefit more from high recharge numbers, a player can keep using all their attacks more frequently, while recovering the end cost at an even fast rate. Better players go beyond single-power spam play. When you and your character have sat down and talked about all the responsibilities of taking things to the next step, then it's appropriate.

Your idea....

You guys just keep doing amazing work! Just another reason why CoH has such an avid and devoted community. Thanks for hearing our wishes and making them come true!

*cough* Hoarfrost *cough* But I would agree that DM pairs excellently with Ice Armor. Two heals, two end recovery powers, and plenty of -To Hit debuff to beef up your defense.

Probably something I wasn't paying attention to when putting the build together. Not even sure if you cancel do that.