InvaderStych

Quoting this intro, because the dumbest thing I did was also the first character I created on Live, during Launch week: Fiddling around with the character creator I made something I thought "looked cool" without regard to (or really knowledge of) the game mechanics. Went Broadsword/Dark Armor, with a Tech Origin. The End usage was brutal enough on its own. But with Tech as an Origin my contacts kept sending me off to fight Clockwork. Talk about Hard Mode. 🤣 Didn't take me long to ReRoll that one. He didn't even make it to his first Travel at 14. Might be easier these days with all the various perks, but unless you hate the blue bar I wouldn't recommend it.

Curious to hear what others have to say about Hem and Leap. My Sav/Will Brute is an absolute riot to play but haven't leveled to those powers yet. I, personally, very much enjoy teleportAoEs, so I'll definitely be taking Leap. Spring Attack is fun and all, but doesn't seem to do much damage unless I'm at full Fury (ymmv, might be better on a scrappy), so I might respec out of it later since Savage Leap looks to have a decent recharge time negating the need for two similar powers. Of course fun factor might override that, and on the Brute version another AoE is always welcome. As far as Exhaustion, I've taken letting BF stack to full, dropping RF, then hitting Blood Thirst to get the stacks of Blood Fury back immediately. Sort of opposite of Build Up. This helps keep the end discount and +rech moving along. Rending Flurry's radius is positively massive when the stacks are full. If you're habitually using Blood Thirst like a traditional Build Up, then I'd suggest trying it immediately after spending the BF Stacks and see if that works out better. Agreed that the set lacks a single "marquee" hard-hitting attack, but play-style wise it seems so far to be about rapid damage than damage all at once. In that respect, not sure it needs one.

Interesting, thanks! Something to consider for my Sav/Will brute in the future perhaps.

Help out someone new to the AT sets; what is the benefit of splitting the two Brute sets across the two powers?

Also had a DM/EA Brute on live which was certainly fun, if slightly under-performing against hard targets like AVs. Re-Rolled him as a Scrapper for HC, which I expect to do better damage via crits and not needing to build Fury. Haven't leveled to Dark Consumption or Soul Drain yet, but there's two "moderate dmg" pbAoEs right there. Also, having two +END AoE powers as well as a heal from both sets works very well for soloing. The DM heal can miss, but it should be part of your regular attack chain anyway - which makes it sort of like a moderately reliable form of burst regen. The -ToHit from DM stacks nicely with the defense set while levelling, but probably becomes less useful the closer you get to the soft cap.

Thanks for that. I really needed a good laugh this morning. 🤣 Can't help with your build, but giving you massive style/humor points.

It was an epic thread from the old boards. https://web.archive.org/web/20120906164029/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=124689 This Gem is not to be missed: I don't remember if the thread spawned the badge, or if the badge informed the thread. Someone else might know the history more clearly than I. https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Strong_%26_Pretty_Badge

I cannot possibly be the only one who got this Thread Winning Reference.

Speaking only for myself, I didn't know that HC existed when that thread happened. 😁 Maybe it's time for a revisit. Out of all the suggestions in this particular thread, changing confront into a single-target teleport/charge attack is the only one I really like (and feel is a thematic fit) so far. I hear there's a beta server for testing such things .... Question, are there any scrapper primaries that don't have confront? I'm not overly familiar with the newer ones.

In terms of fun factor, /SD. WM/SD may not be the most min/max combo, but it was one of my most fun redside toons (Brute Version) back on Live. I'll probably roll another here at some point. Charge -> Whirling -> commence ST chain. Rinse, Repeat.

This. So Much This. All Day, Every Day. Fits the AT theme, and there's inherent risk in porting yourself into a mob that adds a bit of balance to the power as well. The similar power from /SD was one of my very favorite things (granted that was on a Brute back on Live) to do. If there is going to be any change to Scrappers overall, it needs to be this. Stat.

Wow. Just Wow. Many thanks to the amazing team behind this project! Also, apparently Google can read my mind. A couple weeks ago I grew weary of my "go-to" game and found myself waxing nostalgic for CoX. Late last week, while doing an image search for a decent *.gif of the "Shut it down! Shut-it-down FOREVER!!" scene from the movie Dark City (if you don't know what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and watch this movie) and there on the second row was a reference to an article about CoX revival projects, including Homecoming. Seriously. 36 or fewer hours later there I was again, feeling the ScrapperLock! I was never big on MMO games in general, except for this one. The customization is what sold me, and big part of what kept me coming back. Always disliked the way that traditional MMOs forced everyone to look and play alike because of "Gear." Back in '04 I even took a couple days off at Launch so I could take a long weekend gaming stay-cation. Took breaks here and there between Launch and Sunset. Still bummed that work travel obligations kept me from logging in during the last few days of Live. So, again, massive thanks to the team. Very thrilled to be back!