Ston

Would be cool if they can make a force field aura that conforms more to the shape of the body. Thinking something like the sonic resonance auras but with the force field bubble FX. I love the idea though, would definitely use this for a few characters.

Players put a lot of work into finding those outliers. This is evident by Scrappers/Tankers being preferable 4* tank roles instead of Brutes. Also evident by DPS and durability tests done for all melee ATs. A lot of this comes down to minmax’ing their stats and making efficient use of their ATOs. If you set the bar at a mid point, the effort of maximizing those ATs is for nothing if the goal is for everything to be mid together. I don’t see requests for Brutes to outperform Scrappers and Tankers. I see observations that they don’t reach the same level of performance and should get changes to make them a more appealing choice than they currently are.

This is really discouraging when it comes to these kinds of discussions. I think the best design comes when you balance around the highest levels of performance. This way we can set the bar high and see what needs to be brought up.

Problem I see here is Tankers and Scrappers are better jack of all trades melee ATs. They can both do the job of brutes while having higher ceilings in durability or dps. Tanker because of recent buffs to their inherent ability. Scrappers because of ATOs. Brutes don’t really have anything makes them a good replacement for either of those ATs. Even if they can’t reach the same levels of performance, they should have a tool that’s more interactive that makes them at least a “fun” alternative to those ATs.

I hope farming isn't supposed to be a convincing argument for any archetype mechanics. I use a Brute, but can just as well use a Tanker. Anything that has a damage aura that I can leave alone and be confident it won't die for periods of time. Pretty sure tankers are preferred farmers lately anyway.

IMO every AT does have a stand out feature besides Brutes. Except maybe Masterminds...? Khelds / VEATs - Too many to name Blaster - Several tools for more damage / mez protection (interactable) Controller - Team buffs / containment (interactable) Defender - Team buffs / more damage while solo (interactable) Corruptor - Team buffs / scourge (interactable) Dominator - Permadom (interactable) Scrapper / Stalker - Controllable crit damage (interactable) Sentinel - Vulnerability via fury meter (interactable) Tanker - AoE radius/cap buffs / AoE punchvoke (interactable) Brute - Fury that you can't interact with and barely changes in combat

Depending on the base layout, it takes like 15 seconds to use the p2w base teleport power and buy the empowerments you want. Is that really a core gameplay mechanic that would lead to power creep if it were to be altered? Is looking at loading screens really that important?

Asking for a QoL improvement to not need to go to your base every hour is not power creep. Asking for a new base buff that gives you negative energy damage procs to all your powers would be power creep.

I haven’t collected any for Controllers. This is largely due to melee sets being much more inconsistent in their attack recharge/damage numbers compared to ranged sets. Also, all melee powers have access to a minimum of 4 damage procs while ranged powers have access to a minimum of 2 (blaze, blazing arrow, etc).

I've done some testing on proc vs procless builds. My findings are that most of the top performing sets benefit from procs more than the lowest performers. Yes, even fire blast. A proc nerf will do nothing to make the game more enjoyable. I'd be willing to hear out changes to procs, but any flat nerfs to damage procs will just make the game slower and reduce variety in builds.

A project I threw together with lvl 50 gameplay for each archetype

Most of the builds on here are a couple adjustments away from being viable PvE builds. Mostly changing some pool powers and adding AoE.

Correct. The bigger the radius of an AoE attack, the less damage it will do. But on the flip side, you will be able to hit more targets. If you compare a single target attack to an AoE attack with similar recharge rates, the single target attack will always do more damage according to the damage formula.

Storm Kick slotted with 5pc hecatomb (all but dam/rech): *Assumes both ATOs are being used. Brawl with same slotting: I don't know where you are getting your numbers from.. but Brawl will NEVER be a good replacement for any attack in an attack chain.

Here is the build I used for my submission: fire_bio_mace.mbd And the video:

Yes & yes. You should post a submission and show that 🙂 Personally, I've gotten better times with Bio and Stone since Fiery Aura doesn't have Fiery Embrace on Sentinels. But would love to see what kind of DPS it can put out!

Hint: Use the following: Bio Armor or Stone Armor Mace Mastery Enflame Unrelenting Geas + Daggers Would be awesome to see Sentinels in the same neighborhood as Stalkers & Doms.. (35s-45s)

100% agree. I’ve done tinpex once since the update and I had no idea where I was going. Probably the worst navigation I’ve experienced in the game. The zone updates are awesome aside from that. But that one thing is a pretty significant problem.

I'm of the opinion that this does not need to exist. It doesn't take into consideration that you could lose 500m on one roll, but only 250k on another. You already have to do so much activity in game to afford some of these enhancements.. When they fail to upgrade it is extremely defeating. If you could just add 5 boosters to IOs, that would be great. If you could pay some amount of influence to make the odds of upgrading 100%, sure. But until then I really don't think this is a necessary mechanic.

Enter: fire blast and patron pets. Run Type: Pylon (Open Beta) Archetype: Sentinel Primary Powerset: Fire Blast Secondary Powerset: Bio Armor Epic: Mace Time in seconds: Best: 48 Seconds Burst: Burst - due to Geas Hybrid: Assault - Core (toggled on) Number of Runs: 1 Version: Open Beta Temps Used: Offensive Amp, Geas, Daggers fire_bio_mace.mbd

Aaaaand to kick off my month of Sentinel testing: Run Type: Pylon (Open Beta) Archetype: Sentinel Primary Powerset: Electrical Blast Secondary Powerset: Bio Armor Epic: Elec Time in seconds: Best: 55 Seconds Burst: Burst - due to Geas Hybrid: Assault - Core (toggled on) Number of Runs: 1 Version: Open Beta Temps Used: Offensive Amp, Geas, Daggers elec_bio_elec.mbd

Ended up trying a lot of stalkers that I probably won't submit official runs for since I kept overwriting the same build and deleting recordings/screenshots. Here are some unofficial best times I had: martial/bio/mace: 34s db/bio/mace: 28s ninja/bio/mace: 29s fire/bio/mace: 32s km/bio/mace: 36s psi/bio/mace: 39s Run Type: Pylon (Open Beta) Archetype: Stalker Primary Powerset: Energy Melee Secondary Powerset: Bio Armor Epic: Mace Time in seconds: Best: 26 Seconds Burst: Burst - due to Geas Hybrid: Assault - Core (toggled on) Number of Runs: 1 Version: Open Beta Temps Used: Offensive Amp, Geas, Daggers em_bio_mace.mbd

Which I think is a good thing, no? Some sets/builds have better movement speed than others which should impact clear speed. Kinda like using Jaunt in Trapdoor would give you faster times than builds without any teleport.

Right. The idea is they'd be the final "reinforcement" sent to defend the pillbox. Ex: Team of Heroes are capturing a neutral/villain pillbox. They defeat 3 turrets. When they start attacking the 4th, Lord Recluse spawns along with a wave of enemies in an effort to stop the pillbox from being captured by heroes.

The idea is there would only be 1 turret remaining on the pillbox when the AV/Hero spawns. And the AV/Hero would spawn as an ally of the turret to try to help "save" their pillbox. Also, did a quick check: Captured turrets are lvl 50 bosses. Uncaptured turr ets are lvl 54 bosses.