Maelwys

I was feeling slightly positive thinking they'd normalised it to a flat -33% reduction - "OK, that's not as good as we'd hoped but it might not be overly crippling...". But nah; it's a -67% reduction. At this point we'd be better off just losing the Tanker additional radius and Target caps completely and not giving them any inherent other than AoE punchvoke.

Looks like another change on Build #5: Initial opinion is: they've made things even worse. For AoEs (1-10 base targets, 11-16 "overcap" targets) a 67% flat damage reduction means always inflicting less damage than the last build's diminishing returns curve. For Cones (1-5 base targets, 6-10 "overcap" targets) a 67% flat damage reduction means inflicting less damage than before until you start hitting targets 9 and 10. 🤮

Think you're missing a base damage bump against target 15 there? (Doesn't make it much better mind...)

Cheers. So it's a flat reduction but -66.7% not a -33.3%. At least it's not diminishing returns (yuck!) anymore; but looks plenty harsh still unless you're hitting a large number of targets over the "cap".

At work so can't personally double check this yet... To me "Diminishing returns multiplier changed to a flat 0.3333 for all powers after the default target cap" implies that now if targets 1-10 would take X damage; then targets 11-16 would take (X*0.6667) damage [EDIT: it's (X*0.3333) damage as noted below!]. In other words, all "overcap" targets are now getting the same flat damage reduction rather than target 12 taking less damage than target 11. And also that Cones are now being treated the same as AoEs (rather than each having two different damage reduction curves)...? Also this: Reverted the radius increase on the following powers: Powers that are balanced as single target attacks: Powers that accept range enhancements: Is definitely welcome. Shall test when I get home. Although it's not going to be a silver bullet for powersets which have Single Target attack chains that include "regular" cones.

I mean... Time Manipulation is the obvious powerset to build around. Do you wanna blast stuff? Corruptor or Defender. Do you wanna have mooks that blast stuff? Mastermind. Do you wanna lock everything down? Controller. Bots/Time MM is a very powerful combo at most levels; what with the Defense stacking and additional -Regen for AVs/GMs.

So let me get this straight... Snarky is unpleasin', sneezin' and wheezin'... 'cause he got Blinded by the Light? 🤣 Someone must've tripped the merry-go-round.

Question: Have any of your toons got Merits or Prismatic Aethers in their salvage tab? For Merits; visit a Merit Vendor (they're all over: including a machine to the left right inside Atlas Park City Hall; at the main door of portal Corp; opposite the Train station in Talos, etc) and exchange them for Enhancement Boosters or Enhancement Convertors. Then type "/ah". For Prismatic Aethers; there's no need to exchange them (unless you really want a vanity costume). Just type "/ah". Now sell 'em all; and swim around in your newfound fortune like Scrooge McDuck. Whilst yes, of course you can play the market or run around doing various content at level 50; there are a lot of ways to gain inf. It's rather difficult to avoid earning Merits whilst levelling up new characters; since they are a guaranteed reward for completing story arcs... and if you want to farm them solo? The Freaklympics arc is very efficient and easy to repeatedly rerun via the Ouroboros Flashback system at level 30+. Prismatic Aethers have a chance to drop from any regular mission; and rare invention salvage can drop at level 4+ and is very sellable too.

Foot Stomp is a 15ft base radius PBAoE. It didn't have its radius artificially bumped by the Tanker AT radius changes; which is what is causing the base damage of all the other Cones and AoEs to be reduced. This is not a set-specific change. They took the global radius buff from Gauntlet and increased the radius of all the individual Cones and AoEs with a base radius <15ft; aside from a few outliers like Shockwave. This has resulted in all of those affected powers having their base damage lowered in addition to the harsh "overcap" reduction curve on >5 (Cones) or >10 (AoEs) targets. Read at the two posts I linked above - or even just read the second reply in this very thread. To be fair; you're not by any means alone in not realising this - as I pointed out only yesterday; there are very few people who have read this: and thought "Hey; doesn't that mean that the base damage of all those <15ft AoEs and Cones is gonna drop by like 20-30%?"... but that's indeed what has happened. And yes, if they're keeping this change (which I think is a bad idea, as mentioned in the other threads) they 100% need to be much clearer about it in the patch notes.

It really isn't. (and yes; currently on Brainstorm a Cone like Guarded Spin hitting TEN targets deals less damage than the same power hitting FIVE targets on Live...) ⚖️ 🤯

Good grief that's some convoluted coding. Looks like double-damage in PVE but only to to "RAID"-flagged mobs? Amended. I really should've caught that one earlier - I was playing my /Ice Blaster again recently until all these Tanker changes smacked me upside the head...

Ahh, Spike. Semi-relevant quote; and one of my favourites: Andrew Wells: I-I bet even covert operatives eat curly fries. They're really good. Spike: Not as good as those onion blossom things. Andrew Wells: Ooh, I love those. Spike: Yeah, me too. Andrew Wells: It's an onion and it's a flower. I-I don't understand how such a thing is possible. Spike: Oh, see, the genius of it is, you soak it in ice water for an hour so it holds its shape. Then you deep-fry it, root-side up, for about five minutes. Andrew Wells: Masterful. Spike: Yeah. Tell anyone we had this conversation, I'll bite you.

The display bug with Eye of the Storm appears to currently be even worse than usual on Brainstorm - it really threw me for a loop earlier as I thought for a second they'd reverted the Tanker AoE attack radius change (which is in reality still applying and reducing its base damage in combat compared to Live). I had to go Pylon whomping on both Live and Test to make sure I wasn't imagining things.

Yeah; I actually edited the original shortly after posting to include a note that FE damage was included in the display figures. The proposed damage reductions apply to damage from FE in exactly the same as they do to "real" base damage though; so it's still showing the correct proportional effect. If it's overly bothering anyone then when I get home I'll redo the figures without any FE contribution as they'd be shown in the combat log instead of in the powers display. [Edit: Done. The original post should now have the "correct" combat-log matching values for the Staff Cones. I've also included average regular (non FE) DoT damage for FSC]

FWIW; this is what the effect of the Tanker AoE/Cone radius changes combined with the Tanker AoE/Cone "overcap" damage reductions currently looks like: That's attack in-game listed base damage per activation at level 50 - no damage enhancement; let alone incarnates or procs. [EDIT: although note that the game does include normalised values for Fiery Embrace in its display figures; so what's shown above will be a bit higher across the board than what you'd actually see in the combat log!] [EDIT #2: Have removed the Fiery Embrace contribution since it was confusing matters. And also tweaked Fire Sword Circle's figure to use the correct average DoT damage values whilst I was at it!] So as things stand, 15ft base AoEs like Footstomp are going to be the least affected (and you can see that the values in its bar stay green for longer) but they'll still suffer a bit. The most affected will be Cone attacks (such as Guarded Spin which can hit 10 foes on Brainstorm and still not reach the same overall damage as hitting 5 foes on Live!) Single Target Attacks (and a few specific "Ranged" Cones like Shockwave and Throw Spines AFAIK) are the only Secondary Powerset attacks not impacted at all. (Also I purposely omitted Eye of the Storm; as the damage for it currently has a display discrepancy on Brainstorm) And FWIW, this shows why if I had to pick then I'm more in favour of keeping the "Overcap" damage reduction changes than the Gauntlet radius changes. Currently Tanker secondaries that rely heavily on cones (like Staff!) to fill out their attack chain are actually having their Single Target damage drastically cut... 😭

There's an oddity going on with Eye of the Storm now on Brainstorm... It looks like it's not getting the same reduction to base damage as other "<15ft base radius" Tanker AoEs. Live: Brainstorm: But it turns out that's only in the power details screen. In the combat log it's actually still dealing greatly reduced damage. Live: Brainstorm: I wondered if this was unique to Staff on Tankers; but it's not. If you look at the numbers being displayed for EoTS on Scrappers, Stalkers and Brutes they're waaaay bigger in the Power Details Screen on Brainstorm than they are in the Power Details Screen on Live... but it doesn't translate into a real increase in the combat log.

What "absolutely mentioned" damage scalar nerf? The only blanket adjustments to Tanker scalars I'm aware of are to Melee_Buff_Dmg (which affects Damage Buffs, like Rage and Build Up) and to Melee_Debuff_Res_Dmg / Ranged_Debuff_Res_Dmg (which affect Resistance Debuffs, like Evolving Armor and Melt Armor). If there was a nerf to the "damage scalars" (Melee_Damage and Ranged_Damage - the ones that are used to determine the damage dealt by attack powers!) then you'd see that reflected on Brainstorm as reduced base damage for Single Target attacks and AoE attacks with a 15ft base range (like Footstomp) rather than just for smaller AoEs and Cones.

Fair. However regardless of whether it's intentional or not; if they're keeping things as-is then they'll need to be a damn sight more clear about it in the patch notes. Because it's pretty clear that this: just means "we've tweaked Tanker AoE radius a bit" to most people. If the reader cares about min-maxing and/or is inclined towards using spreadsheets then they might realise that this will negatively impact proc activation likelihood... but I can count the number of people who have realised it means a reduction in AoE base damage on one hand. So far the rest have needed it pointed out and/or screamed at them.

Actually... yeah. What Moon said. If you're just back and your goal isn't actually farming just for the sake of farming (I actually quite enjoy generating wares for the AH rather than just flipping them) then there are plenty of folk who will gladly mail you a sizable chunk of of starter cash. And FWIW "Marketeering" (or at least playing Enhancement Convertor Roulette) is often a much faster way to gain raw influence. There's a whole forum dedicated to it. If you don't actually want to farm influence; and you don't want to bother playing the market... just play the game. Whilst levelling up; save your merits and trade them for Enhancement Boosters/Convertors to sell. Then at 50, just play whatever content you like. Inf (and drops) will flow.

There's a Sir Mix-a-Lot song in there somewhere... 😜 I used to main a Regen Scrapper. I'm not exactly a stranger to nerfs. Doesn't really matter to me if a change is Small or Large; but I much prefer ones that make sense to implement and are balanced properly.

For the most part; buffing yourself with another account isn't worth it when farming. You get a greater return (still!) from running three different independent farms. Two accounts each running an AFK farmer (a melee toon at 90% Resistance and 45% Defence + at least 35 HP/Sec passive Regeneration; with 2x Damage Auras and one big PBAoE attack set to autofire); and the third account running an Active Farmer (which doesn't need as much survivability; just lots of high-damage AoEs to spam on everything). If you're just starting out; and you don't have at least one farming toon min/maxxed yet; then sure you could grab a reasonably-tough melee toon plus a Cold Domination buffbot to shore up their Defense and Fire Resistances. But you definitely won't need a Kinetic... as whenever you're Active farming; you should be combining and chugging red inspirations and therefore always be at or near the damage cap anyway. AA's farming guide here is still relevant (at least until the build that's on Beta right now hits Live; and all the folk currently using Tankers swap back to Brutes again!) 😛

My money's on OCD. VEAT MeleeBuffDmg = 0.1 Blaster MeleeBuffDmg = 0.125 Scrapper MeleeBuffDmg = 0.125 Stalker MeleeBuffDmg = 0.1 Brute MeleeBuffDmg = 0.1 Tanker MeleeBuffDmg = 0.1 Heavens! We can't have a low-to-medium damage AT like a Tanker buffing their own damage by the same scale as a Stalker or a Brute, can we? That'd be sheer madness. Similar deal for the -res scaling change. VEAT MeleeDebuffResDmg = 1.0 Blaster MeleeDebuffResDmg = 0.7 Scrapper MeleeDebuffResDmg = 0.75 Stalker MeleeDebuffResDmg = 0.75 Brute MeleeDebuffResDmg = 0.75 Tanker MeleeDebuffResDmg = 0.8 OMGWTFBBQ it's 0.05 too high! All those oodles of -resistance debuffs that Tankers get access to are far too strong! WE MUST SMITE IT WITH THE MIGHTY NERF BAT! ...yeah, it's pretty pointless. 🙄

Nope. Inspirations ignore the AT modifiers, it's a flat bonus to everyone (like Call to Justice; and Assault Core Embodiment stacks) Stuff like perfection of Body Stacks, Rage, Build Up (which all use the Melee_Buff_Dmg scalar instead of Melee_Ones) are affected. Brainstorm Live