Spaghetti Betty

It wasn't Thunder Kick, it was Storm Kick. Used to be a really long flurry kick ending with a side kick. Animation time was about 4 seconds, which made zero sense. It was changed to the spin kick in i3 I think. Other things that have been changed from legacy: - Cobra Strike dealing good damage. It used to do very little. -Dragons Tail going from a cone to a pbaoe. -Storm Kick giving +DEF on hit to Brutes/Tanks. -Eagles Claw giving +DAM on hit to Tanks.

Fury currently boosts damage by 2% for each point of Fury. I just wanna bump it up 1%. With Scrappers and Stalkers critting like crazy nowadays, it wouldn't step on their toes too much. Current Fury sitting at the 90 point softcap = 180% And no, I have no idea why Fury sits at 90 instead of 100.

I have a few radical ideas. Brute's Fury -Increase damage bonus gained from Fury by 1%. Since Fury hovers around 90, this would equate to a 270% damage bonus. I personally don't see that as a game breaker. Or -Chance for Build Up. Obviously the PPM would have to be changed slightly for it to be viable. I just want Brutes to do moar damage. Unrelenting Fury -Chance for stacking +Recharge and +Run Speed. I'm the Juggernaut, b*tch! It's always been my viewpoint that Brutes are the offensive cousins to Tanks and not "Tanks that do more damage". They can already be off-Tanks thanks to team buffs and higher caps and it should stay that way.

I've almost stopped buying them completely at the moment. Running iTrials and HM has my toons flooded with Merits and PAPs, so I'm pretty much set on resources for the time being. Good to see that converters can fluctuate down considerably given the right conditions though.

I was a lurker, not a poster during Live. Considering I was a kid then, that's probably for the best. My handle is also different from what it was. I couldn't tell you what it used to be. But I have played since the game released. I'm no wizard, but I'd like to think my knowledge of the game is at least pretty solid.

I guess we haven't heard their opinion on the new ITF because they don't exist.

So, I have a personal opinion on Innocuous Strikes. I feel like it's cast time is a little on the awkward side. For my Staff/SR Scrapper (and most of my Staff toons honestly), I run a rotation of Guarded Spin, Precise Strike, Serpent's Reach, repeat. For me, at least, this feels like the quickest and strongest chain that still has baked in AoE. If you have Form of the Body, the damage of this chain starts to add up over time. I only deviate from this rotation if I see Critical Strikes proc, because going for a Sky Splitter or Eye of the Storm does far greater damage on crit than 1 rotation of the usual. This chain works seamlessly at 120% global recharge, and I've never really felt the longing for a Build Up type buff when playing this toon. However, This is not something I've considered. It could be worth looking into if you really have a craving for a Build Up to use for Burn, though it's not something I've tested myself.

These are both really good powers in their own respect. Water Spout is one of the cooler epic picks Scrappers have access to and doesn't need a lot of slots to make work. The same could be said for Hibernate. Focused Accuracy is a personal pick of mine. I don't like missing, and FA grants you resistance to -tohit and -perception. Not something you'd have on all the time, but works wonders when fighting mobs like CoT or Carnies. If you feel you don't need Consume to fill up your end bar, great! I like having it in my tray because it 1) means that if I ever do have to worry about my end, I can just click it, and 2) tagging enemies with Consume also grants you resistance to End Drain for 60 seconds. This makes fighting mobs such as Malta or Arachnos a breeze, as you won't have to worry about them sapping you as long as you cycle Consume during combat.

There's some pretty interesting ideas here. Staff/Fire isn't a bad pick. Staff Fighting is very all-round and the Forms allow you to bandage-fix your stats in certain situations. Just a couple points of feedback from my observations. Using Knockback as a form of soft mitigation is a great idea! Nice job. However, slotting your attacks with knockback enhancements presents some issues for a Melee toon. With the increased KB mag, you'll find your Eye of the Storm and Serpent's Reach will be blowing mobs outside of your Burn, rendering it useless. You really don't want that, as Burn is the equivalent of summoning a mini nuke at your location. Don't worry about that Psi hole. Where Fire Armor lacks in bulk, it more than makes up for in healing factor. Healing Flames has the potential to be brought down to a whopping 10 second recharge while healing almost 50% of your HP. Very good stuff! I personally don't like putting procs in your, uh, resource builders. Yeah, that's what we'll call them. Generally, these attacks can be made to have a super low recharge for a lighting fast attack chain, which causes them to not interact with procs well. Don't let this deter you from adding your own flavor. They do certainly help with burst damage, which is something Staff Fighting is not that great at. If you're building for Hard Mode ITFs, I would personally recommend building your scrapper for damage. Buffs are what keep you alive there, so your focus should be damage while the buffers are buffing. That's not to say having some bulk isn't important, but when there's 1k damage/sec coming your way (in 3*+), how much does armor really matter? Anyways, here's my take for your consideration. I skimped a bit on resistance in order to prioritize recharge and damage. I still have Melee defense softcapped after 1 Guarded Spin, and since it's a part of your attack rotation, should be no problem maintaining. With my build, end usage might be a bit high, but can be combatted with aggressive use of Consume, or staying in Form of the Soul if you don't mind sacrificing the damage boost from Body. As far as the Alpha slot goes, I left it open so you can choose based on your preference. If you want better resistance and lower end usage, you could go Cardiac Core. Spiritual Core will guarantee perma-Hasten and fat heals from Healing Flames. Hope this helps!

Like you said, it's all subjective. Not to toot my own horn, I appreciate all the love I get here on the forums for my designs, but I have never won an in-game costume contest despite the positive feedback. Because not everyone has the same tastes, and that's ok. If we're asking how an individual goes about designing a toon, well, I can only speak for myself. I tend to go out of my way to design anything that isn't a standard "tights and capes" hero/villain because that's just not my thing. I tend to lean more towards Fantasy themes or video games homages. I also don't usually aim for "simple", but not very busy either. There's gotta be a flow to it. Colors contribute to that as well. 2 main colors and 1 auxillary color is the way to go. Depending on how you blend them, that auxillary color can end up really standing out, which you can use to your advantage. Of course, not everyone has time for that, and that's fine too. It's only one avenue for enjoying the game.

Matching @First Player's vibe The Shining Pegasus, WP/Staff Tanker

Ah yes, the age old question. To shard or not to shard? Hopefully, not when you're wearing pants.

This is interesting to bring up. The set bonuses are pretty damn good. That's not to say the ATs with good ATO procs don't have good set bonuses, just maybe a little redundant to their respective ATs (Do Tankers really need an extra 12% S/L resist across both sets?) But it's hard to ignore the fact that the Brute's Fury proc is essentially worthless since Fury isn't hard to keep up anymore. IMO that one could use looking at. The other one is fine.

Yeah, I only play on Excelsior, but during odd times for most folks. On most days of the week I'm only able to log on between 1am-5am CST. The exceptions are my off days, Monday and Wednesday, but those are subject to real life.

Exactly this. There's a lot of autohit and unresistable damage being thrown around in a 4-star ITF that is unfortunate to get hit by. It's far much easier to direct that damage at a Tank/Brute over a Blaster or another Corrupter. I'm not arguing that another AT couldn't fill that spot, but I hope you're not discounting aggro management and how it can sway battles constantly.

Sure, I always welcome the opportunity to play with others and make new friends. However, and I don't mean this to come off as abrasive, but I don't think that this will prove either of our points. I just don't believe the 2 situations being discussed are comparable. But we're talking about a Brute's viability in bleeding edge cases, right? The OP wasn't complaining about Brute identity while soloing at +0. In this circumstance that is a huge improvement.

Sure, but having a fat sack of HP to manage aggro and soak up unresistable damage makes the process go way smoother and guarantees far less team wipes.

I agree with the sentiment expressed in the OP. As someone that started playing the game when it launched all the way back in the dinosaur ages, I've watched Co* turn into a complicated beast. One thing I can tell you for sure is that it was never balanced. It started all the way back when Moment of Glory should've just been called Glory. When Fire/Kin Controllers were the first MMs. Dumpster diving Tanks herding entire maps and Blasters then nuking said map-sized spawn with AoEs that had no target cap. Over time, I believe that whoever had their hands in changing the game except Castle had its best intentions in mind as a team-oriented dungeon crawling RPG. Some changes were heavy-handed, some were fair. Fast forward to CoH: Freedom and the introduction of Incarnate powers. I think it's no secret that hands were forced when it came to those. There had to be some way to get people to sink tons of money into the game after it essentially becoming free (which, IMO, killed the game anyway). The Alpha slot was pretty cool. It was an awesome idea to give you that overlevel, bandage fix to your character to make it really feel rounded out. Then Interface, Judgment, Destiny (especially Destiny), Lore all came along and those were hella strong. We were told the strength was for upcoming content. Then the game died. This point has been reiterated time and time again, but we were always given the ability to punch through ceiling after ceiling, but this was the one time where a new one never had the chance to be established. The simple solution was to roll those back. It really was. The "balance" would've been fine then. But that would be really negative. Instead, we can see that HC would much rather try and move forward by offering content that allows us to utilize all of this godhood that was bestowed upon us right before we were left without a home. I think that's a more positive way to try and do things. It is a shame that some things people like to play are getting left in the dust just a bit. But they will have their place again in due time. Keep in mind that even the ATs as they function now have evolved over time since they were introduced based on player feedback. Or did y'all want MMs to be doing the tanking for villain teams? Just some incoherent ramblings as I drink my morning coffee. Have a good day.

Wanted to quote this for emphasis. I've been observing how 4-star ITFs are being ran faster and the current prevailing strategy is shifting towards 1 Brute and 7 Corrs/Defs. Having a Tank in that spot was dropped in favor of the Brute's better potential growth from massive buffs. Which, just from my own observations, is just history repeating itself when it comes to new, tougher content being released. Tanks set the standard, but Brutes push the limit.

My favorite Pop Tarts are those chocolate covered peanut butter ones. Ok, that's a little bit of a lie. My ACTUAL favorite flavor is no longer sold in stores. Blueberry Muffin.

There's a lot of combinations that do well solo without feeling like a slog. If you're not too familiar with IOs (or minimal knowledge/not a lot of resources), some combos I'd recommend would be SR/Dark, Stone/Staff, or Invuln/MA (this one will bloom way later). I picked these because they all offer great safety with minimal investment and play to a Tanker's strengths well. If you are familiar with IOs, Rad/anything would be my go to pick. Honestly, just pick your favorite melee. Some of my recommendations would be Energy Melee (insane Single Target damage), Titan Weapons (amazing AoE damage with knockdown spam for soft control), and Stone Melee (somewhere in the middle). But, my ultimate recommendation is to just pick what sounds the most fun for you. Tankers solo exceptionally well, and you have to go out of your way to make a bad Tank.

Wanna give my thoughts on the patch so far as well. Granted, there's not a whole lot of stuff I've been able to try out in my limited play time, but... The new ITF stuff is bar none my favorite content in the game now. ITF was already one of the most fun things to do in the game, IMO. The new fights are really cool, and makes it feel like there are stakes. Do I have some gripes about it? Yeah, I do. I don't think minions should be able to chop down any AT in 1-2 hits. That seems a little excessive. I also don't like having to immediately check the door to phase 2 Rom to see if I'm gonna get blown to smithereens. Just seems like I've watched the team wipe more from entering that chamber than have actually died to the encounter. Oh, and the Vandal fight seems a little tacked on, but I think I just feel that way because having to wait for him to run to you is a little cheap. Other than those points, I love all the new ideas. Sheathed Weapons is a dream come true for me. Even when I started playing all the way back in 2004 as a kid I always thought about how cool it would be to have a sword strapped to my back/side/spleen/etc. A huge plus in my book. Oh yeah, and the Knives of Artemis sword was added. Way cool. I don't know that I care too much about Prismatic Aether Particles as much as I'm glad they added a vanity reward to Hard Mode stuff and not something extremely critical or exploitable. I did make some fat bank off of the handful I sold, which will go to alts. And this is not to say that vanity rewards aren't something I'd do content for. I spent a lot of hours in WoW hunting for mounts. Just not really interested in looking like a NPC. When it comes to the removal of converting Empyrean Merits to Reward Merits, I view it as a necessary loss. I feel like we had it real good, just being able to stockpile merits like that. I know that's not a popular opinion, but it gave me a kick in the butt and realize that sitting in my hermit cave and only soloing wasn't gonna keep me playing. Now that I've been reaching out a bit and trying to do more team oriented content, I have just as many merits as I did before while making some new friends along the way. At least I think they're friends. I think that's about all I've given myself a chance to experience of Page 4 so far. I'm also gonna have to break out of my safe space of playing mostly melee to try out Symphonic Control, new Sonic Blast, and the Ice Control changes, but they are on the list. The long list of projects that I have started and put on the shelf. *looks at the 3 Doms I started 2 months ago*

During October, the Shadow Shard TFs are WSTs. Great time to get a huge Reward Merit payout. Hoping I can catch some of these. I had to miss out last year due to scheduling conflicts.

"Playing the game is its own reward," sure. Any game you decide to spend your time on should be fun. But with any game (or anything fun for that matter), establishing goals is an important part of gaining a sense of accomplishment when doing something fun. Rewards are an easy way to set goalposts. And there will always be people that argue rewards aren't good enough. It doesn't help that "reward" is entirely subjective. For me, making 1000 alts with any costume pieces I want without a paywall (or unlock requirements) is pretty good fun and a great reward.

This is why I have never successfully completed Rescue Waylon McCrane. I'm more apt to just kill mobs until he dies. If he dies to AoEs while I'm trying to rescue him, even better. It would be nice if we could issue commands to them like MM pets so we at least have some control over their safety.