Maelwys

Strangely enough, it was actually the opposite experience for me on my first Scrapper. At the time /Regen was unique to Blueside, Stamina needed a power pool pick and level 20; and no other DPS ATs existed with access to a buff like Quick Recovery. By comparison to other ATs I'd played, my little Katana/Regen Scrapper just DID NOT STOP. At full pelt they could go for days, essentially a cross between an energiser bunny and a woodchipper; and they could switch into "turtle mode" with a single button press (Divine Avalanche). By comparison, other toons managed maybe one attack chain before their Blue bar bottomed out and they were reduced to using Brawl; and they tended to faceplant if a single red-conning LT so much as glanced at them. After they hit 50, that Scrapper still took pride of place on my character list for a long time... until Inventions hit + other sorts of toons became able to deal better damage whilst hitting the defence softcap solo. However they still got pulled out any time the SG ran any Malta, Carnie or Shadow Shard missions; and eventually the introduction of more damage and -res procs helped them raise their head again - not top of the pack, but a respectable "upper middle tier". My Controllers on the other hand certainly experienced exactly what you're talking about here. I'd an Illusion/Empath that was SOOOO slow to level up... even with Deceive and Phantom Wounds doing most of the heavy lifting. However once at 50 + IOed they were easily one of the best toons I've ever rolled up prior to Incarnate Abilities; with Perma-PA, Perma-Adrenaline boost, almost Perma Auras and Power Boosted Fortitudes.

The OP specifically referenced Scrapper damage in comparison to Brutes rather than Stalkers or non-melee ATs. Presumably this is because Brutes and Scrappers have identical powerset and are both generally seen as "melee DPS" ATs. The rebuttal I made was that Scrapper Damage compares favourably to Brutes even without Crits due to the Scrapper AT's substantially higher base damage modifier. I think it's fair to state that between those two ATs; Brutes have a higher survivability peak (Damage Resistance and Maximum HP); and Scrappers have a higher damage output peak (raw red numbers) and that when soloing at lower levels, Scrappers that can self-buff their damage output will pull ahead. The Damage per Animation of Scrapper attacks in comparison to Blasters, Sentinels, Stalkers, etc. is an entirely different conversation, and every point made against Scrappers there will apply to Brutes as well; since they share common animation times and powersets. That said, I have an old DPA spreadsheet dated 2011 in which a Fire/Shield Scrapper comfortably places at the top of the ST damage charts... and ten years later (2021 was when I last properly bothered mathing it) a lowly solo Katana/Regen could push >340 DPA when procced-up with an optimised attack chain without ATOs or Build Up running; and Energy Melee could comfortably push >420 DPA under the same circumstances. Yes, ATOs will certainly increase Scrapper damage; but unless things have changed drastically in the last few patches they will be adding at *most* roughly an extra attack's worth of damage onto your attack chain every ~10 seconds (The Superior CS Proc grants +50% crit rate activation for 3.25 seconds, which includes the animation time of the activating ability. Given most scrapper powerset activation times, you can typically get 1-2 attacks off at most with that buff applied to them. However hitting the 90% activation rate cap for the CS proc is only possible when you slot it into a power with >12s base recharge; and *most* of those have longer activation times. Best-case you might fit a lower-DPA 1.188s or 1.32s activation time power in, followed by something slower and heavier...) There's also an argument that other ATs (Stalkers, for example) rely much more on their ATOs for DPA than Scrappers do!

If you haven't already, I'd strongly recommend setting up Numpad text file binds for targeting, commanding and buffing your henchmen individually. Personally I've used largely the same bind/macro setup for my MMs since issue6, and they look something like this (example given is for Robots): The upshot is that I can tap NumpadEnter to switch between "select my teammates" mode and "select my henchmen" mode. When in team select mode, tapping numpad1 through numpad8 individually targets/selects each of my current team members. When in henchmen select mode, tapping numpad1 through numpad6 individually targets/selects my henchmen, and numpad 7/8 issue them the Attack/Follow commands. The numpad9 and numpad "." are always GOTO and STAY commands (for either the selected henchman or all henchmen) and numpad+ and numpad- always activate the equip and upgrade abilities. That leaves the numpad "0", "/" and "*" keys for other regularly-used ally-targeted buffs/heals; such as Fortitude, Clear Mind and Heal Other; and they can be applied to whatever individual henchmen/ally you wish with just two button presses. I typically also bind the "B" key to Follow/Defensive [Bodyguard], the "G" Key to [AGgressive] and the "H" key to Follow/Passive [Heel]. The "V" key is a mixture of Defensive and Aggressive [Variable] - typically 1-2 tougher henchmen = aggressive, the rest = defensive; AKA "lazy autopilot mode". After all that, the only pet commands I need on the actual power tray is an "Attack my current target" override command; plus the summons themselves.

I... honestly think there's far too much emphasis being put on the Scrapper Critical Hit mechanic here. Crits are not anywhere near as important to Scrapper Damage Output as Fury is to a Brute's. The higher Scrapper base damage modifier produces decent results by itself, Crits are just icing on the cake. Functional Example: Broadsword ability "Hack": === SCRAPPER DAMAGE, WITH VARIOUS CRIT CHANCES AND/OR ATOs === === BRUTE DAMAGE, AT VARIOUS FURY LEVELS === =================================================== Breakpoints where Brute performance begins to exceed Scrapper performance: =================================================== So in a typical situation, with just SOs and Basic Inherent Critical hits on non-T9 attacks versus non-negligible foes (LTs+), Brutes typically need to be operating at ~65 Fury to draw level with Scrapper average damage numbers. Whenever you factor in additional damage buffs (like Build Up, Follow Up, AAO, Set Bonuses, Teammate Buffs and/or Alpha Slots); Scrappers pull *way* ahead - realistically the only time Brutes compare favourably is at very high fury levels (~80+) whenever the Scrapper is lacking any of their ATOs and isn't fighting enemy ranks above minion. Whenever you also include ATOs (even just the SSS one), things get silly very quickly... but even without them a Brute will operate on an even keel *at best* unless the Scrapper isn't getting any noteworthy +Damage% buffs or -Resistance% debuffs.

Easy. Recognise that Scrappers =/= Brutes. Brutes thrive whenever they're constantly being punched in the face by everything or constantly punching everything in the face. That's how they build Fury, and maintain the high damagemuffins. Brutes also taunt anything they attack, causing foes to blindly focus on them. Scrappers thrive whenever they're running from boss to boss, tapping Build Up then "arresting" them so fast and hard that they leave bits of them splattered all over the floor/walls/ceiling/neighbouring buildings. They don't need to build and maintain Fury, they can get upset by a foe simply looking at them funny. Scrappers also tend to focus blindly on attacking anything that taunts them. Brutes generally trend towards performing best vs +0/8, Scrappers towards +4/0. Sure, there are exceptions like Spines/ Scrappers and /FA Brutes... but by and large one is a slaughtering boss and the other is a boss slaughterer. They're both capable soloers, but Scrappers have better "spike damage" but lower damage resistance and maximum health caps - so they're better at skirmishing with a few tough foes and killing them off quickly rather than at soaking the aggro of the entire map.

Thug Enforcer Maneuvers and Protector Bot Bubbles add substantial amounts of Defence; and the 'Bot Bubbles will buff the MM. (Bots *used to* buff other pets as well... unfortunately no longer, but they now apply almost instantly and the value is a good bit higher: ~22% Def to everything when slotted up) Generally I find Bots easiest to hit Softcap - technically with Incarnate slots them hitting 40-45% defence doesn't even require any powers from your secondary at all. They also have decent self-healing potential between the Protector Bots and the Repair Drone. Bot Damage Resistances are definitely a bit of a mixed batch though (Lethal is OK, but Cold and Psionic are very situational) so if you're fighting anything that manages to get through all that defence they'll tend to get one-shot rather than chipped to death. The likes of Demons have a far better spread of Damage Resistances; especially with the LT pet's "Ember Shield" buff... but you'll definitely need to strongly leverage your secondary to softcap their defence. For general hardiness without factoring in secondary, I'd go with something like Bots > Thugs/Mercs > Demons/Beasts > Necro > Ninjas. Bots have sky-high defence and self-healing. Thugs have good defense and resistance and Gang War, Mercs have good resistance and self-healing and Serum; Demons/Beasts have decent resistance and self-healing. Necro has debuffs and limited self-healing. Ninjas have... caltrops and smoke bombs and halitosis? (OK, dig at the Katana Cosplay brigade aside: They get 13.5% Defence to Melee/Ranged and 18% to AoE, plus a weak self-heal on a 45s timer. Now compare that with Necro's much quicker self-healing, at least half-a-softcap's worth of ToHit debuffs plus Soul Extraction and a semi-decent spread of Damage Resistances.) EDIT: also - Base Numbers for Mercs: Soldier/Medic/Spec Ops = 26.145% Damage Resistance (Smashing, Lethal) Commando = the above plus +6.549% Damage Resistance (Fire, Cold, Toxic)

Aye I suspected 100% or more is treated as "guaranteed"... but we've seen cases in the past where anything over a 'cap' acts as a buffer vs reductions/debuffs/etc. (Which I suppose is exactly what's happening here; since the ReduceIfKD flag is coded as a reduction. Hopefully that's the only negative value that ever gets applied against PowerChanceMod!) So now that we've pinned down more of the mechanics... checking the various boost effects; I'm still unsure why I wasn't observing any noticable difference in slotting Bonfire with an Overwhelming Force proc versus a Sudden Acceleration proc. Both should trigger the same ReduceIfKD behaviour resulting in the same base KD effect in Bonfire/Repel/Whirlwind/etc... but there should also have been an *additional* "2.5PPM chance for KD" occurring with the OF Proc. My PPM calculator suggests that with the new 15ft Radius of Epic Pool Bonfire's Pseudopet; the OF Proc ought to have resulted in my MM gaining an extra 15.5% chance for a KD to actually kick in upon casting of Bonfire + every 10s thereafter; and then throwing in a Ragnarok 'Chance for KD' Proc (3.5PPM) should have likewise resulted in an extra 21.71% chance for additional floppery. But in reality I wasn't seeing any noteworthy increase in KDs occurring at all. (OK, so at the time of testing there'd only have been 3 opportunities for any additional KDs to occur during Bonfire's then-30-second duration... but I'd at least have expect to have consistently observed a few more foes getting immediately knocked on their posteriors upon casting! Weird.) Annihilation "Chance for -res" procs are definitely kicking in however; so I'm guessing this behaviour is a side effect of the way all that ReduceIfKD fudgery combines with regular "KD PPM" activations.

Which would imply very little has actually changed in terms of the average number of times a foe will find itself knocked on its back over the duration of a bonfire patch... which is in line with my testing! 🍻 It also helps explain some of the disgruntled Fire Controller/Dominator comments we've been seeing here since there'd now be a halved chance for Bonfire to immediately KD a group of Foes upon casting (albeit a much better chance for it to snag a foe that enters the patch for less than 2 seconds!). However 1 second after that initial spike it immediately evens out; and if anything the Knockdown rate over time has become a bit less streaky. Factoring in the Activation Rate definitely looks like what I was missing above; since Whirlwind and Repel both have an activation rate of 0.5s to Bonfire's 1s. That also suggests the patch might technically be a buff to Bonfire's KB rate if you're not slotting it with a KB>KD IO... (140% KB chance every 2s vs 120% KB chance every 1s?) ...I'm still annoyed about the reduced radius in the Epic Pool version of Bonfire, but at least they're reverting the duration nerf (hurrah!) and testing has proven that I can get largely the same effect as before by simply casting Fireball (albeit slotted with Ragnarok and Superior Frozen Blast Procs...) more often! 🤣

Top right of CoD --> "Switch to Alpha Data". That Database is dated April 2023 and the tag is still present.

Yeah there's something else going on that we're not seeing, like perhaps a minimum % chance floor. According to CoD; Repel and Whirlwind both have "110% chance to Knockback" compared to Bonfire's "120% chance to Knockback". So if the KB>KD IOs are really applying a flat -100% reduction to the chance value then Bonfire's would be reduced to 20% and Repel to 10%. However in reality after you slot a KB>KD IO into the power they're both roughly equal in how often they actually Knock a critter over! ( I've only tested Repel and Whirlwind on a few farming missions on Brainstorm; but they are definitely not half as effective as Bonfire. Each applied hundreds of KDs over the course of each asteroid map; and as far as I could see the variance really just came down to how tightly mobs were clustered...)

To be fair, Speed Boost is a tiny, tiny part of a /Kin MMs' romping great engine of buffstruction. Unlike all those silly players with their annoying ideas and opinions and free will, your henchmen will ALWAYS respond properly to a Passive/GoTo order to perfectly position them for Fulcrum Shift etc. and they never complain in /local about you making them run too fast, hit too hard or recover endurance too quickly.

Personally I tend to go Burst. Whenever you want -regen it tends to be for a tough single target; and Bots can power through hordes of underlings before you'd notice any benefit from it. Photon Grenade deals decent enough DPA, but the Patron/Epic pool AoEs are better.

Would be useful to see the build here. Trip Mine plus Assault Bot Swarm Missiles can absolutely melt entire maps. These days the AssBot is also your only pet that needs a KB>HD IO, after that just slow-slot Caltrops to keep most foes from fleeing out of the patches.

Thanks! 👍 (Might have to hold off on that respec to Mu Mastery after all!)

I've not observed much difference on my Bot/Kin if I'm being honest, at least vs CoT (they've always been annoying, for all the crappy cave maps if nothing else). Council have gone from "facerollingly boring" to "may need to press an extra button or two occasionally". Admittedly that toon is pretty much twinked out, so the deck is rather stacked in favour of my henchies even without Bonfire.

Correct. Valuewise, Defender modifiers for the buffs/debuffs are higher than Controller, Corruptor, Mastermind, etc. but otherwise the same behaviour and ratios apply. Also; buffs/debuffs from later castings of Fulcrum Shift will stack with those of previous castings. So a Kin with decent +recharge% can still get their team to the damage cap in a target-poor environment via multiple Fulcrum Shift casts (although Siphon Power helps too!)

Yes Zep's post is still accurate. In short: Target a mob. Activate Fulcrum Shift. #1: The target and any other enemies near them get their damage debuffed. #2: Any players (or friendly units like pets) close enough to the debuffed enemies get a damage buff; which INCREASES DRASTICALLY depending on how many enemies were debuffed. #3: Any players (or friendly units like pets) close enough to the player that activated Fulcrum shift also get a SEPERATE damage buff; this one is constant regardless of how many enemies were hit. So if the person casting Fulcrum shift and the target(s) hit are close enough together, then it's possble to get your damage buffed twice by same same Fulcrum Shift activation. However if the person casting Fulcrum Shift is hanging too far back, then the best place to stand depends on how many foes get debuffed. With 1 foe, stand near the caster. With 3 foes, stand near the target. Two foes is dead even. Yes, it definitely needs accuracy slotted. See here for defender Kinetic numbers; and note the three components at play here: the DEBUFF OF THE TARGET (not autohit; accuracy modifier of 1.00 so no special bonuses), the BUFF AROUND THE TARGET (autohit) and the BUFF AROUND THE CASTER (autohit)

Over the recent beta release candidate patches; Bonfire varied wildly. It started out as a MAJOR nerf to KB chance (from 140% to 115%) in Release Candidate #1. Then they reverted part of that nerf in Release Candidate #2 (raising it a bit to 120%) but introduced a ToHit Check for the damage component. Release Candidate #3 (which made it to live) kept the changes from #2. I can't find any hard numbers on the KB -> KD IO "reduced effect"changes themselves, but I did a fair amount of personal in-game testing on Brainstorm with my MM... and over a reasonable sample size (5 AE farming missions with several hundred mobs) the resulting flop rate of Level 50 - 54 mobs was very slightly less than it was on Live. The actual observed increase in foes staying upright within Bonfire's radius was only about 8% (and whether I used a 'Sudden Acceleration' IO and/or an 'Overwhelming Force' IO made no noticable difference; and neither did combining either/both of them with a 'Ragnarok: Chance for KD' Proc). It was the other changes to the Epic Pool variants of Bonfire which have unfortunately resulted in my MM having to respec - the Epic Pool version of Bonfire was also hit with a vastly reduced Radius (25 -> 15ft) and Duration (45s -> 30s)... and that radius reduction in particular was enough to seriously cripple their performance. However neither of those changes affected the Controller/Dominator Primary version of Bonfire.

Bots/ pairs pretty well with almost any secondary; it really repends what you want from the character. I've played Bot/Dark and Bot/Traps extensively, but my favourite is a Bot/Kin. It works reasonably well (it was *very* well prior to the recent patch that crippled Bonfire) - Speed Boost and Transference counter your henchies' endurance woes, Increase Density fills in useful gaps in their Damage Resistance and Mez Protection; and Transfusion is a solid AoE heal with -Regen debuffs baked in. Plus, obviously, Siphon Power and Fulcrum Shift makes your pets' AoE damage output completely skyrocket. Unfortunately it's impossible these days for a Bot/Kin to softcap their pets' defence solo without Incarnate abilities (the Assbot and Drones used to be able to hit >45% back when Protector Bot bubbles double-stacked) but they can still reach around 36.6%, so a single Support Core Embodiment or +Defence AoE Inspiration will softcap them. Running Barrier Core Epiphany is also capable of softcapping all your pets for the first 60s of its 120s duration (providing you're running a +Defence Alpha Slot like Agility Core Paragon to increase its default buff slightly!) and if you combine it with a Lore Slot support pet that has a +defence buff (such as Warworks, Robotic Drones, IDF or Clockwork) then it can push your henchies over the softcap during the rest of the time. + The Warworks and IDF and Drones Lore support pets have an AoE +5% Defence bubble that constantly cycles "on for 10 seconds then off for 10 seconds" plus a fast-recharging Single Target Heal/Mez Protection buff. + The Clockwork support pet has a Single-Target +5% Defence bubble that can keep four of your henchmen bubbled constantly (it targets the oldest pets first, so summon your Assault Bot before the rest!) plus a slightly-slower-recharging Single Target Heal. + The Talons support pet has an AoE up-for-20s-down-for-25s +5% Defence/+10% DmgRes buff and a ST Heal. + The Seers support pet has a ST +5% Def buff in Fortitide which can only affect one pet at a time; plus a ST Heal. + The Arachnos support pet has an AoE +10% Defence buff with 90s uptime; but it'll only get it off once per summoning (so 90s every 15 mins). I typically run with Warworks, since the LT deals decent and consistent -Regen debuffs; which when combined with Bot/ attacks and Transfusion can halt an AV's regeneration. For "normal" gameplay rather than "farming" it can help to run Clarion Core Epiphany instead of Barrier, since no native mez protection for the Mastermind themselves can make things a bit iffy (although the henchmen being immune to everything due to their native protections plus ID helps drastically). Mine is currently sitting at roughly 50% Defence to all positionals with just Maneuvers and Combat Jumping running plus the Protector Bot shield and a smattering of set bonuses; but they've got no real noteworthy damage resistances, so a few henchmen tend to stay in Bodyguard mode just in case! Until recently a large part of this character's soloing performance at endgame (fighting endless hordes of +4s) relied upon Bonfire from the 'Flame Mastery' Epic Pool with a KB>KD IO slotted. Since the Page 7 nerf, Bonfire remains useful for pure survivability (it has a reduced radius and a slightly lowered KD rate... but it still reliably flops enemies that remain within the radius) however it has become far less useful for keeping enemies bunched up - too many enemies now manage to flee out of the area of effect, which means that they escape your Swarm Missile Burn patches and also become much more awkward to catch in a Fulcrum Shift. I'm currently experimenting with other options (like Repel combined with Web Envelope/Electrifying Fences) but am yet to settle on a new optimal setup. That said, if you bring a duo buddy (or second account) with a Taunt or AoE immobilise etc. then it's still a crazy effective combo. Same goes for any teams short of +4 Hardmode TFs (where /Kin is always appreciated, but continually resummoning the Drones can get annoying!) [EDIT:] I spent quite some time this evening testing a number of possible new combinations on Brainstorm. It looks like it's currently a toss up between Mu Mastery (Repel with a KB>KD IO, plus Electric Fences can keep things neatly bunched up) or Fire Mastery (Bonfire with a KB>KD IO, plus Fireball with a 'Superior Frozen Blast: Chance for Immob' Proc - the Immob proc triggers just often enough to keep a sufficient number of foes within the bonfire). The first setup gives you greater survivability by way of Charged Armor, however keeping Repel up in the middle of a big horde of enemies is a major endurance drain and basically requires you to spam Transference. The second setup gives you greater damage output due to Fireball's better numbers plus an extra 'Annihilation -Res' Proc in Bonfire; but the Immobilise proc gets less reliable as enemy level/rank increases. Mace Mastery performs worse than both due to the long animation time on Web Envelope, and Scorpion Shield is useless since you're already softcapped.

Speaking as someone who has also recently returned to CoH after going AWOL for a few years to pick up the [Married] and [Daughter] and [Son] achievement badges... ...Welcome Back. For me, CoH is one of those odd edge cases where there is sufficient rose-tinted nostalgia to make me want to play it again AND where logging in and actually running a character through a few random missions/TFs/story arcs is genuinely enjoyable (rather than such a grind that it feels like a second day job, like some other old MMORPGS I could mention...) That said, please don't burn yourself out. I know personally how tough it can be to get free time whenever you have lots of other new RL commitments; and taking a breather to detox/recharge is very important for mental health. It's not great if you constantly feel like you're trudging uphill in the snow with a tractor strapped to your back; regardless of how many people are relying on you to keep going. So if updating CoD feels like "work" rather than "play" then by all means take a step back and let it sit slightly out-of-date for a bit. CoDv2 is a great + very useful resource; but the playerbase will survive if its updates don't quite manage to match the breakneck pace of the Homecoming dev team! 😉

MM Fire Mastery Epic Pool Bonfire still has the incorrect duration. It was 45 seconds, and is now 30 seconds. No mention of the reduction in the Patch notes. I previously reported this on the Beta Testing Bug forum , the Main Feedback thread and the Focused Feedback thread ... This had been affecting release candidates 1, 2 and 3 and is now affecting Live as well. CAN I HAZ FIX PLZ? 🙂 [EDIT: Whoohoo Fix Incoming! - Thanks Kindly! 🙂 ] Now, on to some more general feedback... The Good: Fantastic job on the RWZ revamps, Advanced mode changes and customization features. Clearly a lot of work went into this and it is genuinely appreciated. The Bad: Whilst my Bot/Kin/Flame MM was *very* negatively affected by the Epic Pool changes, to the point where I am seriously considering taking both Repel and Whirlwind in order for him to continue soloing at +4/8, I can appreciate that the intent of the power rebalancing aspect of this patch was not to cremate Fire Mastery but to try to bring Epic and Patron pool performance roughly into line with each other. However Bonfire as a KD patch filled a very useful niche. None of the other MM Patron/Epic pools contain any powers that provide noteworthy AoE Crowd Control; which is a real shame. The closest out there is Web Grenade from the Mace Patron pool. Having something along the lines of Freezing Rain, Ice Slick or even Ice Patch available would be greatly appreciated (and if it wasn't for the cottage rule then I'd be very much advocating for Flash Freeze or Hoarfrost from "Chill Mastery" to be swapped for Ice Patch). As it stands currently, Bonfire's area of affect has been reduced to almost a third of what it was before and the "flop rate" notably reduced when a KB>KD IO is slotted - foes are now able to flee the area of effect far more quickly, with the result that my AssBot's Burn Patches end up scattering large spawns across the map again. Sad Keanu is Sad.

The above patch notes are taken from Release Candidate #3 (the current build at time of writing). However it appears that Bonfire has also had its duration cut from 45s to 30s... but I can't see any mention of this duration adjustment in this nor within the patch notes for previous Release Candidates)? Further details here and here. Cheers!

I SAY THEE NEIGH!

To be fair, in that case I'd go with Thugs/Storm. Purely to keep hurricane up so that you never have to catch a whiff of what The Rock is Cooking.