ZemX

I don't see how non-suppressed stealth is impacted. If anything, it does what it always has done and keeps you FROM aggroing nearby groups unless you really want to. It also doesn't affect teams much because excess aggro will spill onto teammates just the same as before. Only situation where you are getting more incoming fire than before is if you solo and intentionally pull multiple x8 sized groups, previously relying on the aggro cap to "regulate" the incoming fire. That's why it's mostly farmers talking about it.

On a team it shouldn't be any different. Aggro spreads to teammates, so outside of the same 16 targets you've always been able to hit with it, anything you aggro beyond the cap should spill onto teammates like before, not just stand there shooting you.

This hasn't been my PuG experience. KB scatter is rare. Controllers/Doms immobilizing spread out spawns is more common but still not an every team thing either. That stuff doesn't just affect AoE tankers but ANY melee AoE and half of ranged AoE powers too.

Oh no... not touching that. (a) Wasn't really involved the first time, but also (b) I am sure the "answer" to that question is a whole flame war all by itself (and HAS been a whole flame war in the past). Not at all interested in re-litigating now. Point though is that nobody should have to. If one has a solid argument for or against a nerf, on the specifics, then they don't need to be attacking anyone's motives. Generally, doing so is a dead giveaway that one doesn't have a better argument and is appealing to emotions instead. And nobody HAS a solid argument on the specifics of this alleged Bio nerf because... there aren't any. Not any that we've been shown, at least. Nobody has come forward to say it's happening and why. So there's nothing worth the time debating... yet. And even then it would be best to carry that on in another thread.

I started out talking about Bio and I am still talking about Bio. If you want to move the goal posts somewhere else, feel free to have that conversation without me.

Looking at all available data is not generalizing. Generalizing is looking at a small section of that data and saying it is representative of the whole. Regardless, there doesn't seem to be much point in carrying on a hypothetical nerf debate about something that is only rumor. Until someone states there's definitely a nerf happening and why they decided there should be one... this is kind of a waste of time.

If it's taking time away from damage output then that shows up in slower XP gain rate. If it's too difficult for the average player to use then the set as a whole won't overperform in the data as few people will be using it to its fullest potential. Well, nobody is "invoking" this nerf as far as I've seen. It's just a rumor. And "sufficiently large context" shouldn't be a problem for the devs who have access to all the data. If people playing Bio are overperforming everything else then they are doing so despite whatever hurdles you think Bio puts in place. Then again to read some of the whining in the beta threads and in General sometimes you'd think people believe the HC Devs are fickle power-mad overlords who swing the nerf bat just because they once saw someone do something too cool in game.

Reconcile what? The skill/clicky/whateveryouwannacallit nature of Bio has nothing to do with the needing nerfs. The needing nerfs thing is also just a rumor at this point. Infinitum was just listing a couple things to be aware of about his current #1 rating of the set. Not that they were all related to one another. Whether or not Bio does take much skill to play is kind of irrelevant in a nerf. If they are going to nerf it, one would hope it's the general player data they are looking at rather than a few outliers. In other words, whatever skill it takes to extract that level of performance is already accounted for in the "how is everyone doing with Bio" data.

Not what I meant. I mean in most cases ONLY the defense check was changed. In a few cases, which I listed, the damage was also shifted from one type to another. You can read the patch notes yourself in the beta section if this is confusing. That's all I did.

It's only the defense check that was changed for most things. There are a few adjustments to actual damage listed in the patch notes but not to Ice Blast:

Most of us probably are, actually. 🤪

While it's true that Cold is Rad's worst resist... it's also not really a big deal. I wouldn't go as far as to say it "lacks" cold resist. RadA isn't entirely a resist set so even middling Cold resist coupled with all its other tools is really no issue. We'll see if I notice it more after the next update where a few enemy groups got their cold damage boosted . But I doubt it. As for defense, outside of hardmode TFs, it's also not a big deal. RadA doesn't have defense but also doesn't really rely on it either. It's certainly a nice to have but without Defense Debuff Resistance, it's of questionable worth, in my opinion. If you can send it up significantly over the soft-cap, sure. If not... forget about it. Unless you're just really having fun wrangling that concept, FF would do just as well as Cold dom, I think.

Tankers can't read?

Rad/Elec is a whole lotta AoE, that's for sure. With Ground Zero and Lightning Rod you'll eventually have two solid big AoE openers to alternate between. Not that the bots won't be making a mess of everything in the room already...

Thanks for the correction. It seems to add AoE taunt to the "main target" of a power as long as it has activate period = 0 (any non-toggle attack, in other words). So that should mean an AoE around the main target of a cone too, though. Probably not noticeable on a lot of cones but if it taunts in a 10ft radius sphere around the main target, that's bigger than most melee cones.

Rad Armor has two large AoEs in Rad Therapy and Ground Zero. RT is available relatively early and has a large area (though hits just 10 targets). Still, remember that, for Tankers, every target hit procs an AoE taunt in a 10ft radius around it. Everyone will get the message. If you have any trouble at all with escapees, the Taunt power itself is the next best thing for reaching out and grabbing runners at a distance without having to move from the group you already have corralled. I wouldn't worry overmuch about the secondary. Pick something thematic. Thematic with a Bots MM? Probably Elec or Energy Melee. Both have a decent AoE at level 16. Elec has more AoE in the end and Energy much stronger Single Target. Make your Tanker the lead Bot in the MM's army? 🤪 Less thematic, but interesting to pair with Rad Armor is Staff. You can pick something tech-energy looking and add flashy colored power customization. The interesting things about Staff for Rad Armor are the +def(melee/lethal) Guarded Spin cone attack. Itself a decently large 135 degree, 9ft long cone on a Tanker. Available level 4. Good place for MotT proc and a LotG. Eye of the Storm is the PBAoE at 16. 15ft radius on a Tanker. Procs -res when used as a finisher in Form of Body stance. Has knockdown so also takes FF:Recharge proc. Innocuous Strikes is another cone, same size as Guarded Spin at level 35. Level 38 gives you Sky Splitter. This single target slow attack gives you +13% res(all) when used as a finisher. Nice for shoring up the weaker resistances in your build without devoting too much set bonus effort to them. Or even for skipping Tough entirely. TL;DR: Staff is not considered one of the better damage secondaries but on a Tanker it's got large and fast AoEs and some nice side benefits.

This. I try to look for stuff I'd actually notice making a difference and if I can't find it, I don't sweat the build. This usually means more like what powers I have and when than the difference between one set bonus and another. Putting that Theft of Essence in Rad Therapy. Having Focused Accuracy the next time I'm assaulted by five hurricane-wielding witches or sorcerers. Having 80-100% slow resist when you rely on healing or absorb shield refresh. That sort of thing. Defense is maybe one of the few things where squeezing out one or two more % can make what feels like a binary difference in survival. But that's the nature of defense. Immortal... until you're suddenly dead. Though not exactly as sudden on a Tanker, still feels alarmingly fast if you're not used to bleeding your own blood.

There isn't anything particularly synergistic between TW and Bio other than TW used to be top dog damage and Bio added moar damage bonus. TW does has a +def move but it's melee/lethal defense neither of which Bio has by default. Though you're likely to be building pool and set def bonuses up to add to Bio's existing typed defenses anyway so Guarded Spin's +def(melee, lethal) might end up helping you get to or over the melee soft-cap. Between that and capped s/l resist, it's very tough. I'm working on a Bio/Staff myself since I'm a fan of Staff fighting. It's not great single-target but it's very good and very quick AoE on a Tanker. So good against crowds of weaker enemies solo and great at punch-voking lots of enemies on teams. Having 3 modes of operation in the primary AND secondary is also kind of fun to play mix and match with. SS I am less far along with. I opted to try Rad/SS because it should largely ignore the crashes as it doesn't rely on defense and has gobs of endurance recovery tools. Bio does rely on typed defense for some things and S/L resist for others, so that will hurt a little more but... it also has a great heal and absorb shield and you're going to be capped to S/L resist. So I imagine it doesn't hurt Bio all that much either. Since I level normally, SS is more of a grind for me having no good AoE damage until 38. Hand Clap (with knockdown converter) is a nice mitigation move though and doubles as another big area punch-voke on teams. Frowned upon by the more damage-oriented Tankers though. Haven't any experience with Claws but I think it's good with anything.

Infamous, even?

Honest question since I don't AE farm... what changes? I saw that the vet xp tihng was already reverted so what other change in the beta patch notes is affecting AE farming?

There wouldn't be much value in trying. Killing through one spawn at a time works on any team and is easy to speed up or slow down based on how fast the team is killing. Herding only works if the team can both survive without you and yet kills slowly enough that you have time to pull mobs across a map onto them. Or maybe you tank the fight while someone else pulls in groups. The limiter in that case is the mobs themselves. Pulling mobs is just as annoyingly slow as dragging hostages to a door. They move at less than Sprint speed in most cases. I'm sure someone could come up with a very specific team where doing this would be faster than hopping spawn to spawn and then post a video of it. I'm just not sure it would prove anything worth knowing. I would say, start by assuming you'll fight through and if it happens you notice the team is sturdy but slow? Try the herding. See how it goes. I have more experience with Tankers than Brutes. I'd just worry that Tanker might not be great on the bosses and that could slow you down a lot, though again, only if you're carrying the whole team. If you have even one other 50 with you who does better than tank damage... it's not a problem. Brutes are a bit less tough than Tankers but survivability is a binary. If you have enough, having more is no difference. The -defense will help some, but you may find tweaking the +level notoriety is better. If the team can't kill quickly enough, it might gain slower XP on higher settings than on lower.

If doing what I described is "slow" then you're doing it wrong. Ideally the team doesn't stop moving and someone is always starting the next fight while the last one is mopping up. It goes as fast as the team can kill. Pulling mobs to the team isn't necessarily faster. You might gain some efficiency if the team has good AoE but you're still dealing with pulling slow-jogging mobs halfway across a map. You might only have time to pull two or three spawns in before you have to move anyway. Which one anybody finds more "fun" is subjective. Personally, I find playing meat-grinder in a single location to be pretty dull. But if I'm being honest, PI radios are the last place I go for "adventure" anyway.

I don't remember who said it but someone at one point asked if the mission we were on was a "defeat all" and the reply was something like, "Well, it is when we do it anyway!" Tanker Stealth.

Tanking PI radios is easy, especially if it's just Council. Only the Marksmen (snipers) typically refuse to huddle up to the tank so if you have a few seconds ahead of the rest of the team when jumping into a spawn, you can often have them in a nice tight bunch for AoEs when the team reaches you. No need for herding or corner pulling. It's usually fastest and safest to one-at-a-time these spawns right where they are standing. Corner pulling is generally only beneficial on maps where enemies are widely spread out or reluctant to collapse on the tanker's position. Praetorian maps with Clockwork, PPD, or Resistance are notorious for being spread all over the place and using only ranged attacks. For them, any corner or object you can use to break LOS after aggroing helps as they will stubbornly refuse to close in on you even when Taunted. Herding (i.e. pulling more than one group to the team at a time) is often a bad idea if the team has a lot of sidekicks. To the point of this thread, if the idea is to carry a lot of lowbies for powerleveling... just don't do it. One spawn at a time is "The Way". You otherwise risk spilling over the aggro cap and making paste of the squishies.

According to this at least there are some Malta to be found in a few of the location radio missions (bank, pawn shop, police station) in PI https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Police_Radio Not sure if they are available in the other rescue, get object, or defeat boss radio mission types though.