InvaderStych

It doesn't, though the immobilize effect still triggers in combat logs, and proc dmg still occurs occasionally, although at what seems to be a reduced rate. I thought I saw a very rare, 1-2pt dmg tick from MudPots bleed through while in Geode, but I couldn't repeat it so I figured it was just me mis-reading something in the scroll. Irradiated Ground, because it is a funky pet thing does continue to function while in Geode, again with procs firing at what seems to be a reduced rate from normal. I want to emphasize seems to be again because that's all from just observation and I didn't actually pull any logs to examine closely. The other thing about Geode is that occasionally it gets destroyed in very short order. I've been running Jenkins' Infernal/Portal mission just as an easy thing to try different /Stone combos with, at one point I used it while making contact with the portal and it was destroyed almost instantly. I thought it might have been a bug but it was just a big burst of incoming dmg. Same mission at +4x8 and the pet only lasts a few seconds against a full group from time to time. Having it explode as a pbAoE is actually a really good idea; trying to stay in it for 30s for the full Brimstone buff is going to be a big of a challenge. I do greatly enjoy that it changes appearance as it takes damage. That's a very nice touch! 👍 Edit: Has anyone been able to determine in Brimstone's chance to Crit is affected by Scrapper ATOs?

That's fair enough. I do often lean too far towards the assumption that someone is referring to me when their comments are not directed, but leveled towards a group with whom I agree in spirit, if not in attitude or word choice. I saw those comments leveled at you and they were also useless, petty, counter-productive. I am sure you can also see how, as someone who both disagrees with you and is trying to discuss these questions constructively that when blanket accusations of "supermansplaining" are leveled upon those with which you disagree that I too would feel as attacked as you did from the comments leveled at you, directly, by others: There's nothing disingenuous about my position. I would love to see scrappers actually have their own play-style that differentiates them. Technically true. Scrappers are *already* Nerfed Brutes With RNG Burst Dmg. To answer the remaining questions: 1. I wouldn't know. I don't team with teams who routinely refuse players based on AT or Powers selection. I have no problems with people looking for a particular team composition for theme or challenge play, but as a matter of course if a PUG team is being picky about AT/Sets I know to run away quickly. 😉 I suppose another exception is a team nearly full looking to fill a gap - nothing wrong with that either. I think we all know the line I'm drawing in the proverbial sand here. 😄 2. Yup. Psi/SD routinely pulls aggro away from Tanks and Brutes. On the road to 50 so did the Savage/Invuln. Kat/Rad, same story. Pulling aggro off tanks all day long. The only reason it doesn't cause issues is the lack of difficulty in the high end game. I have a distinct feeling that when people are doing no incarnate runs and Relentless DASF it will be much more noticeable. In the case of the DASF, there are enemies there one will want to chase down with extreme prejudice and a taunt aura isn't going to make one bit of difference in their behavior. As a sign of things to come, the mechanical efficiency of auto-taunt may decrease with new content. 3. So, in this theoretical situation there's also no Controllers or Doms, no Defenders or Corrs? "Tanking" is just a form of "Control" if one breaks down the core of the game far enough. I am missing something in this question. Scrappers should have taunt auras just in case a team can't recruit a brute or a tank? That doesn't really speak much for the perceived value of the AT. So, I'll pose the same question again: Is there a series of +dmg changes to Scrappers in exchange for removing taunt from all secondaries that you would feel is balanced enough against Brutes without stepping on the toes of Stalkers?

Ok, a lot to digest here since I was last in the thread, some very valid points made, and I think perhaps we should back away from the question for a second and try to settle upon the identity of a Scrapper, as the question of Taunt has been brought up in several threads since the release of Stone armor for Scrappers to Open Beta. Absolutely. At the moment we seem to have camps who are focused upon the mechanical efficiency of the taunt mechanic while others are focused on trying to nudge scrappers into something more unique than just a "Less Durable Brute With Critical Hits." 1000% agree with this idea. I would re-phrase that people care about how taunt makes the game mechanically more efficient/simpler to play. Which is totally fine. I get it. But if that is the desired play-style, Brutes are around the corner. So, for sake of balance - because @Bill Z Bubba is the most correct when it comes to balance issues between scrapper secondaries - although it is far more than just taunt/no-taunt that differentiate them, imo. Adding a taunt to /SR or /Nin (thematically, why, really?) isn't going to make them suddenly faster in Trapdoor clear times than Bio or /SD simply because those sets have tools that dramatically increase damage output. However, the converse is also true. Removing taunt from all of the scrapper secondaries isn't going to change the performance rankings all that much either. /Fire will still be too squishy for most outside of dedicated team-only builds, /Regen will still be broken, etc etc ... Undeniably. A Taunt aura is the most mechanically efficient was for a melee toon to solo through content expeditiously. The question is do we really need 3 classes of melee with that as a focus? This is a non-issue on teams; and when I solo "mechanical efficiency" isn't really my goal anyway. So how about this: how much of a damage increase to scrappers would it take for the trade-off of losing all taunt from the ATs auras in order for that to feel balanced against your Brutes? Is it possible to give them said increase without stepping on the toes of Stalkers? Should it be a base dmg increase? A cap increase? Target Cap/AoE size buffs? People who's primary focus is maximum mechanical efficiency will be bothered by it, mostly when solo. As it is a non-issue on teams, I don't see why the entire AT needs to be relegated to the role of "Nerfed Brute with RNG Burst DMG" simply for the sake of mechanical efficiency. Please stop making value judgements about what other people consider fun. Save that sort of vitriol for Facebook, it serves no purpose here. I don't think wading through static mobs that are racing to be the first to die in the swarm around me is all that fun or interesting, but I see no reason to pass judgement over those that do.

If Inner Tube ever does actually get movement, someone needs to write some kind of "Lazy River" bind set for collecting River Rat. Something that just points one in the appropriate direction after each is collected, and hits auto-run, or something. 😛

To date, the worst most frustrating combo I ever tried was also the first. In 2004: Broadsword/Dark Armor scrapper. Which is probably totally viable now, but not even remotely then. Hooray for all those levels before Stamina! Who was talking about endurance just buggering off? What endurance? 😄 On the other hand that was also before ED, and pre-ED Headsplitter was a sight to behold. Too bad it was unplayable for more than about 15 seconds before completely flattening the blue bar.

Public Service Broadcasting BBC remixes above sort of reminded me I wanted to post a couple of these: If War Should Come Night Mail The Other Side

Ack! I always forget Burn. Gotta call myself out on that one too! 😄

This assertion is based on the premise that scrapper does not function "properly" unless it has a source of an automatic taunt. I disagree with that pretty strongly. A Scrapper's contribution to a team is not aggro management, it's priority-target & hard-target elimination while being durable enough that the support ATs don't have to worry about you as much as they do the Blaster. If there is a need to hold a hard target's attention, natural threat and massive dmg in its face do that just fine. A solo scrapper should have no problems with "runners" given that most of us are running an epic snipe and Combat Teleport exists. Honestly, with those two tools I actually enjoy taking out strays that think they are going to escape. But I'm quite odd, I know. The only reason Scrappers have them at all is due to auras with a buff based on mobs being in range; change those into something that is not mob dependent - without nerfing its potential - and I'm just fine dropping all taunt from Scrapper secondaries. And, though I am too lazy to do another quote: Hard No conforming all the Scrapper armors to the Sentinel versions. First off, Sents don't get /Shield, and you can pry my shield from my cold-dead-scrapper-hands. 😄 Second, Sents don't get the good version of Beta Decay and the crappy version of the dmg buff from Meltdown. 3rd, if there are certain armors where the Sent implementation makes more sense (Regen!), then those should be evaluated case by case, not wholesale. Edit: (Okay, less lazy than I thought but ...) Why are we all focusing on the auras while forgetting that neither Shield Charge nor Ground Zero crit either? 😉

I briefly spun up a Kat/Stone on Beta just to give re-rolling my Kat/Rad one more thought. Full Skin Armors with contrasting colors and the "Fire & Ice" Energy Sword looks very good, though not the right look for the toon. Would probably be a very good combo, likely wouldn't need to worry about DA. Did a little more building with Rad/Stone ... my gawd the endurance consumption between all those toggles and IG. Devastating gets a huge Brimstone Proc, but I would probably hate leveling Rad Melee. As a combo for leveraging weird mechanics it will probably be very solid though. If there was a one-handed hammer skin for dual blades ...... 😄

Actually, this is a very cool idea. The "analyzing power" you describe already exists in Surveillance so that is an easy port; a +Perception power is also an easy port. The rest of it is very utilitarian, but doesn't seem to induce scary power-creep. Of course the rest of it is subject to Standard Code Rant, but it is a solid idea nonetheless.

Yeah, I was way off. 😄 I went down the "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." road after reading the OP and couldn't find my way back. By the time I realized that was the wrong road it was too late. 😄

Let players buy ad space for their favorite toon on billboards for massive amounts of Fake Money Units; simple in-game editor with limited assets to prevent the obvious "image trolling" that would otherwise occur.

Because it should have it's cottage burned down and made into a CT style gap closer that does 0 dmg, is restricted by line of sight, but has Burst of Speed's range. Not yet another power that renders Scrappers into a much less durable Tank/Brute with marginally better burst damage. Scrappers are not Tanks. Please stop trying to homogenize melee ATs. If changes are in line for Scrappers, they should differentiate the AT, not homogenize it. Currently, if I want a Scrapper with a constant taunt, I have options, if I want one that doesn't because tactically I want to select my encounters and eliminate the most dangerous target while letting the tanks and controllers deal with aggro management, I have that option as well. This suggestions limits options and increases homogenization, so still a hard no. Also, if you really must have a taunt on your /Burn scrapper, take the Melee Hybrid branch that includes a taunt (the +def side iirc). All the auto-taunt you will ever need.

It's a way of saying "No." without offering explanation. Is as much a part of the old boards as Strong And Pretty. I was an on/off player from launch until late 2011 or so, it was definitely a thing, but I also enjoy forums and probably spend too much time on them. 🤣 https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%2Fjranger I take exception to the definition, because any given idea to which someone might use /jranger is not automatically "Dumb," just one that the /jranger user thinks is such - accurately or not. Depending on how one feels about such things, it is either a bit of nostalgic humor or an act of toxic meme-ery. Or something in between. Me? Meh? The internet is the internet and things like /jranger happen. When I see someone using it frequently, especially in threads where an idea merits more discussion I tend to start skimming past their content rather than reading it.

Who the hell is Brandon? I mean /jranger actually comes from the original CoH boards, so I get why people use it and whatever. Not my style, even if I do indulge in silly meme-ery from time to time. But now we're supposed to some person named Brandon? Nope. Too Far, Internet, Too Far. 😛

In before the overwhelming flood of reviews for Pumpkin Spice Enriche.

That is the trade-off between armor choices. Sets that have a taunt in Scrapper Secondaries are the ones that have an aura where the buff is dependent on the number of mobs within the radius of the aura. Sets that have a damage aura (including Stone after Page 3 goes Live) get a passive damage source instead of a mob-dependent buff and a taunt. SR/Ninjitsu don't need one either because that's thematically weird. Especially for /Nin. Seriously. There are plenty of ways to deal with runners between *PPs and Combat Teleport. Taunt dynamics and Scrappers are just fine as they are. Would much rather see Scrapper Secondaries trigger Critical Hits; suits the class better and brings them in line with Brutes/Tanks who's inherent effects are buffs to damaging powers in their secondary/primary respectively. So, thank you but no, we'll have a never mind.

Spines gets a little less, imo, from Brimstone due to the lower modifier to the fire dmg proc for Ranged attacks. Impale's Brimstone dmg was pretty low compared to melee ST attacks with similar activation times, and Throw Spines gets a double-whammy as it is ranged and the fire dmg proc is affected by Area Factor. That can all be extrapolated from patch notes, so hopefully I'm not in trouble for saying that outside of the Beta section. There's more info on how Brimstone works in the /SA Feedback thread though. I haven't tried Katana, but War Mace is pretty satisfying. Rad Melee has also been interesting, but those animations, lol. Despite that I am actually somewhat tempted by Rad/Stone. It's also a nice boost for Savage as well. Haven't figured out the interaction with Leap, but VS benefits from it quite nicely. I think that it's hard to decide between fast attacking sets to maximize applications or slower sets for bigger dmg/tic is a sign that it might be pretty well balanced.

Assuming technical feasibility, I can't think of any game play/balance reason not to add a way for players to purchase builds slots beyond the "Free 3" builds. A few outlier ATs might confer an advantage mid-TF/SF by doing so, but the costs/downsides seem to balance that out on the surface. Also, others have previously mentioned, here is another thing for folks to spend their mountain of Fake Money Units upon. 😄

I'd also love to see what info @Booper and Company would be willing to share with the class about Brimstone's dmg proc. Some anecdotal stuff: Seems to be 0-3 tics with a "cancel on miss" or similar effect. I thought at first the patch notes reference to "(scales from 0-3 seconds)" was the DoT duration from Brimstone, but now I realize that actually means that the dmg scale caps at 3s activation time; anything longer doesn't increase dmg any further if I understand it correctly. It does feel like the "Ranged Scale" modifier is a bit low. Impale's (Spines) Brimstone bonus felt quite low for the activation time after having done light experimentation with Hammer, Rad, Savage, and Spines in that order. For Throw Spines it was pretty abysmal.

Shield Charge -> Mass Levitate Also, Laser Beam Eyes/X-Ray Beam/et al (if there are others), because eye lasers are coolness.

Ki-Push -> <Any Blast> <or> Storm Kick (gotta be fast) <or> Burst of Speed (wait a beat for best results). Bonus Points: Ki Push -> Combat Teleport (targeted macro) -> Ki push -> Combat Teleport -> <<Repeat>> though that one is just a stupid mini-game. 😛 Burst of Speed -> Combat Teleport (<shift>-<W,A,S, or D> as appropriate) -> Vorpal Judgement.

Many thanks to the magical person/people who made this design decision and made it possible, btw. Kinda hope it is a sign of things to come for scrapper secondaries. 😉

So ... I guess I'm the only one playing from a standing desk then? Technically it's not even a desk. Flat-packed shelving that happens to be the perfect height. 😄

Echoing this. Also, is there any way to bring the available palate of Rooted any closer to the rest of the set? I know this is common in a lot of sets (never quite understood why though), but the different in /SA seems quite dramatic. Yup, this looks to be working properly. Yes, also very much into this idea. SS, as noted, is a rather strong auto (values worth some enhancement) and slots quite a few desirable unique/global pieces. More importantly, Brimstone brings the much more interesting and set-defining mechanic of +fire dmg; I'd much rather have that earlier. Which brings me to Brimstone and Geode ... Is it by design that Mud Pots does not seem to benefit from the Brimstone proc? Should we expect similar from the rest of various dmg auras? I expected it not to function with Irradiated Ground because that one is "special" (have not tested, but last time I tried, Firey Embrace didn't buff IG, irrc), but Mud Pots does appear in the regular dmg output, not as Pet dmg, as with IG. I may have missed it just watching the scroll though. Could someone in the know set my expectation? 😄 On that subject - Geode suppresses Mud Pot's damage, but not the immobilize effect nor does it prevent dmg procs (Ice Mistral's chance for cold tested) from firing/applying dmg. The latter doesn't seem in line with intent. Geode is quite interesting; if one has the patience to let the stacks build up, the dmg buff feels significant. Finding practical times to use it should be fun, if challenging in certain circumstances.