drbuzzard

In ideal circumstances (as in somehow the pets all stay alive, which is doable on a pylon run, but not so much in normal TF play in my experience), a crabbermind does high end damage. I think they have very respectable pylon times. I have a SoA with two builds, one as a crabbermind and another as a ranged tank. The crabbermind does sick damage while the pets last, but I find that to be a small enough percentage of the time, that re-summoning pets on long timers annoys me to much and I play the tank build. The ranged tank is as you say- so so damage, but high team support. You did mention people thinking stalkers were a weak class- that's for people who aren't in the know. Stalkers are the highest single target damage class (unless TW scrappers throw this off too far, I don't follow pylon stuff much). I have a number of stalkers and recently have forced myself to build up some scrappers to see the contrast. There is no comparison, stalkers are flat out brutal killing machines that can reap AVs like they were summer wheat. They suffer a bit on AOEs in general, but dayum, their single target damage is brutal.

People used to know that stacked buff/debuff characters was how you broke the game. I'm not really sure how that knowledge was lost. However leveraging that requires people to stick together and coordinate, and again we're talking a lost art.

The tanker damage scalar is higher, hence the bonus you get from rage is greater. Brutes have a damage scalar of 0.75 vs. tankers now having a damage scalar of 0.95. So if we look at a brute at the fury cap ( which is around 80% in normal situations iirc, but I may be a bit off), that gives +160% damage plus normal slotting (gives close to +100% base damage, again, not quite, but I'm math lazy and like round numbers). That means a slotted up brute at fury cap does 0.75 *3.6 = 2.6 * base damage of a power. A tanker, however, with normal slotting (again rounded to +100%) is 0.95 *2 = 1.9 * base damage of a power. We then add rage which boosts the user with 80% damage boost. Brute goes to 0.75*4.4 = 3.3 * base damage of a power 26% increase tanker goes to 0.95 *2.8 = 2.66 * base damage of a power 40% increase We double stack rage and: Brute goes to 0.75*5.2 = 4.94 * base damage of a power 37% increase tanker goes to 0.95 *3.6 =3.42 * base damage of a power 80% increase So while brutes do remain ahead in damage, the gap gets smaller with rage (and even moreso with double stacked rage) and the benefits are more pronounced on tankers. In relevance to the OP, I've been build building some brutes of late to contrast to the many tanks I build to try out the big tanker buff. It's quite clear the damage gap is still strongly in favor of the brute, especially how easy it is to hold up fury now. However, if you pick a set which leveraged the AOE changes (war mace is a very strong example), tankers really do a great job of reaping crowds now, and hit notably harder than they did. The durability gap is also quite large. As with all things, there's that opportunity cost on making builds, and as you like durable brutes, you have to make a lot of design choices chasing durability on a brute that come much easier on a tanker. Getting to 90% resistance, or higher defense numbers is simply tougher. The tanker will simply heal more due to greater base and max hit points. I also make my brutes as tough as I can, and I've been playing the recent ones through DA missions, and the durability gap really shows there since it's generally about as hard as the game gets. The brutes will get beat down if I set to maximum, while my tankers will pretty much stroll on through. If the brute is durable to the particular faction attacks, the advantage in damage is evident how fast I can clear, but if there's a damage hole, the brute will have to be much more cautious or sets things much lower.

Personally I don't know that it's desirable to spend a lot of effort on increasing redside population. Even when the game was live, and there was a whole lot more resources available to put into things, the devs couldn't really get people to go redside much past the launch of the CoV game. I remember during that issue Redside was busy, but after that? Not so much. As someone mentioned redside on live was ~20% of blueside, which isn't very far off the stats which were just presented for Homecoming. Not exactly sure how anyone imagines that a staff with much more limited resources will be able to do to change that. Some minor tweaking of rewards and alignment powers? I know I won't care in the least. Though on a positive note, it does beat the idea of cutting off access to ATs to try to force players to the other side. That would be a total train wreck. I've never had much incentive to play a villain, and while I did get all the villain ATs to 50 back on live (playing) on redside, I have no desire to do it again. We're in a legacy game here and I'd just as soon that if work is going to be done on the game, it not be an attempt to shoehorn people into playing things they don't want to. Allocating resources to what people want to do instead of what people don't want to do makes a lot more sense.

Electric armor starts slow, especially on brutes. I'd suggest more team play. Ride the task force wagon on up the levels. Once you hit the 30s you should be reasonably durable. It will also get you past the factions which are heavy on toxic and negative energy (though CoT is always around, there are more options). You should try to get missions fighting clockworks since you will resist energy damage and the endurance drain well. Though really electric is a bit of a tricky set to make properly durable. Looking at your build, I'd add fighting pool so you can eventually (with IO sets) cap your lethal and smashing resistance (tough is what you want). Honestly I don't see why you have 3 travel pools. Pick one, and for that I'd suggest leaping pool as grounded means you lack knockback protection in the air (and teleport is a pain to use without binds). Also for attacks, I would suggest if you're doing basic common IOs, do 2acc, 1 end red, and the rest damage depending on how many slots you feel like allocating. Truthfully, I'm of the opinion that electric is hard to make tough without IO sets. As it sounds like you're pretty low level, I'd consider making the character again (you have 1000 slots, so no need to delete) but to War Mace/ Willpower. Willpower is quite durable and actually gets most of what it needs to be good fairly early on. It will need IO set bonuses to tank for a team without support, but soloing it will be plenty good.

I didn't particularly want to find numbers to show why I greatly prefer War Mace over Battle Axe, but you've been kind enough to provide them. The way I evaluate a set before making an alt is to look at the DPAS (damage per activation second) for the attacks, and if the numbers are good, I go with them. The problem with BA vs. WM, is that the DPAS tends to be weaker across the board (I'm not going to post numbers because I'm lazy, and because the provided numbers will make my case). So let's make a simple bit of math using the provided numbers to make my case. WM smashes a pylon in 1:15 (or 75 seconds) and BA does it in 1:45 or 105 seconds. For the sake of easier math (this way it gives round numbers), I'll call the BA number 100 seconds (which means I'm being nice). Then we pick a nice round number to call the health of the pylon to make the math easy, say 30000 HP (because again things give round numbers, and yes I know it's not the real number, pylon math is a lot more complicated since it includes regeneration). 30k/100 = 300 DPS vs. 30k/75= 400 DPS. Hence WM is about 33% better than BA at sustained DPS given the numbers (better in fact since I was kind to BA). Is this night and day? I suppose that your mileage may vary on that evaluation. Between the way lethal is resisted so strongly at high level and this numerical difference, I have no interest in playing BA again. Anyone else is certainly welcome to play it, as it's not an awful set. Heck, I finally got a Titan Weapon build to 50, and while I know it is the numbers champion, I didn't like playing it at all, so perhaps BA will suit someone better than WM. Terrible, no. It's pretty middle of the pack. It's just that you picked War Mace to compare to, and that's simply a very strong set which is notably superior across the board. If you compare it to katana or Broadsword, it will likely fare quite well.

OK, thanks. I was afraid I had missed some nice simple trick. Honestly, I'm usually a bit lazy about it and beat down Rommy as I rarely solo the TF (have done it 3 times, once each on a sentinel, brute, and stalker just to see if the builds could). On teams everyone seems to just beat on Rommy, so I go with the flow. Trying to properly coordinate a PUG TF is like herding cats. If I can make them avoid the ambush at the oracle, I feel I've done enough work.

Impressive. One question- how do you tell the different nictus apart at final Rommy?

Actually what I'd suggest is follow this to get your alpha to tier 3 which IMO is the first goal you should have in incarnate stuff. That gives you a level shift of +1 for all content played at 50, and this is very powerful. Then you work on the other incarnate slots as they open, hoarding up the threads for those. As you muddle along post 50 shards will accumulate however, and they can be used to craft up the second tier 3 alpha you will need to reach tier 4 (when you do a WST you get a notice of the well, which gets you that tier 3 with some shard input). Tier 4 though should be done with threads and empyreal merits making the very rare.

Now unless I am missing something, you can tailor your targets of farming to make it safer on blasters and basically reap the same rewards (minus the 10 threads 1/day or 1 merit/day). You choose the highest risk to test for your reward. That's not exactly normal (or fire farms wouldn't really be a thing). Do it against non incarnate enemies on a council farm map ( to leave AE out of this), and I expect different results.

This is a perception issue and nothing else. Mind you, this is a game, so what you perceive to be fun is what matters. I look at the absorb shield as the amount of regeneration a regen sentinel is capable of without taxing their system. The stuff they just heal nearly instantly. It's the deep wounds (organs, broken major bones, major nerve trunks), that are what get past the absorb shield. I can state one thing with certainty, you're not seeing instant heal as a toggle again without it being nerfed. Thus you should be happy with the set as is given your conditions for adjustment.

While this is true, it's not the whole story. Blasters can get mez protection (t4 clarion is permanent mez protection-maybe T3, don't recall). Blaster all have access to various flavors of armor in their EPPs. Also, the sentinel resistance debuff is either very weak (5%) or single target and tied to a screwy inherent. Now I will certainly grant that the ride to 50 is much easier on a sentinel, because they won't die nearly as much. However the survival disparity between blasters and sentinels at end game (completed builds with IOs and incarnates) is a much smaller gap than you describe. Your case seems to rest on the notion that safety has value, and I won't say that is completely untrue. However in a game with rewards, risk/reward becomes far more relevant. The lower damage and AOE caps on sentinels means they reap rewards appreciably more slowly than you can as a blaster (or brute, or scrapper, or stalker, or heck , probably even tank nowadays). That's what really matters to be quite honest. If safety were the paramount measure of power, phase shift would be in every build.

Did the VEATs slip past you or something? They are tankmages, in addition to being tankbuffers and tanktrollers (on the widow side). Have you been saying they don't belong in the game either? Hell, my crab is actually a lot more durable than my sentinels (pick one of 16 or so), though the lack of a credible nuke puts him a bit behind in damage (I have the crabbermind build available, but I dislike how fast the pets die, though when it is all up, he shames sentinels in damage). The crab also hands out more goodies to the team around him.

Oh, I forgot to call for 'nerf regen' because it is traditional.

This is actually the approach I'd follow if they were to revisit regeneration and make it feel like it was. Sentinels version of regeneration is the closest feel to old school regeneration that exists in the game now. Instead of having Instant Heal being that massive HP regenerating click (which was once a glorious toggle), they made it into a absorb toggle. This means it can have a ceiling well below your health cap, and yet still regenerate fast, but not the outrageous excesses of original Instant Heal. I think it's a very well thought out solution. The absorb bar looks a lot like the yo-yoing of the old IH, but because it is only so many points, a solid hit will still blow right through it and get to your real health which doesn't come back as fast. Thus unlike original regen where it was damned close to all or nothing if something could one shot you, this version allows you to get beat down.

I can say that things still will sell quickly if you adjust to the new price, so demand isn't an issue from my small window. While there are tons of bottom feeders out there who make selling for 1 (or 1000) on a recipe a trap, you can still gauge market prices and sell for around that and have things move.

Doesn't that go without saying?

There is a very large difference between flipping to make influence on the market and farming to generate influence from scratch. The former is deflationary, the latter is inflationary. Now of course farming also generates drops, so it is not quite so cut and dry, but the discussion here is about the influence generation rate, and the removal of the 2x option. Luminara's post does a good job of explaining the consequences of rampant in game inflation. Already the change removing that option has cut market prices pretty substantially. That's a good thing, even though it has certainly lowered earnings for market flippers (as I'm one of those).

I agree that target caps are important as well (though incarnate attacks can go higher), but I've just seen too many tankers herd up a bunch at once and then some poor PUG blaster starts nuking the pile, and he quickly finds out that not all the bosses are part of the tank's aggro cap.

War mace and battle axes were 2 of the original tanker sets from the start of the game. Initially clobber was a no damage stun attack, and war mace was universally seen as one of the weakest tanker secondaries (ice melee was the other bad one back then). It was demonstrated enough times how bad that WM was so the devs made clobber into the badass attack it now is, and it completely changed the tone and quality of the set. It became a good single target set with also good AOE capability. At this point battle axe is the one that lags. I was thinking of making a new alt, and while I had an axe guy back on live, I could not bring myself to make another one when I know how weak it is. I endorse WM any day, but would not encourage anyone to do BA.

If the concept of aggro caps doesn't make sense to you, I'm not going to bother to explain.

I just did smite and shadow maul, and don't really count on the procs since the recharges are so short. They are both in my attack chain, so the procs will pop eventually.

This requires a huge guide to answer. It's not really within the scope of a fast reply. A few quick points would be stone armor is weak until granite, then indestructible. It's also a major pain to play (got one to 50 back on live, won't do it again). I would suggest not making one because most people won't want the pain. You can get close enough in durability using IOs and other primaries. Dark armor, is an odd duck which is complicated to play and work with. It can be made plenty durable, but you don't think about it the way you do with other tanks. This is also quite complicated, and also very subject to individual taste. I've been pretty impressed with how SD/DM worked out, though it is a complicated build, the ability to get to perma soul drain coupled with Against All Odds means you run with a huge damage bonus all the time. It's really quite impressive. The current rage crash from super strength is rather unhappy with defense based sets like SR, SD, or Ice. One bad technique I see all too often in tankers is one who close to taunt range of a group of enemies, taunts them, then runs into the crowd. All this does is pull ranged attacks to yourself as you close. There's no benefit. Every tanker primary has an aggro aura one way or another. Merely moving into the crowd will taunt them if you just stand there. Hold onto the taunt for ones which are outside of your aura (as in ones which start moving away). Also, people need to stop herding. In a game of 17 maximum aggro cap, there is no reason for herding at all (sure, if you want, group up the single spawn, but that's not really herding). If you herd two groups together past the 17 limit it just means your team will be pulling that aggro instead of you. Sure, some builds can handle it, but don't count on that on PUGs.

Yeah, you are correct. Too long and it won't do you much good. I tend to put them into my PBAOEs which tend to have longer (I don't consider Soul Drain a PBAOE even if it technically is, but I think of it more like build up), but not too long timers.

I agree that the +res proc is well placed in a damage aura so you have it going off all the time. Given proc mechanics, you want it in something which has a long recharge time so it pops more reliably. Thus if you don't have a damage aura, I'd go with whatever attacks have the longest recharges.