Bill Z Bubba

Regardless, the question was can I drop boxing/tough and pick one other power to increase my DPS. The answer is yes.

Generally speaking while solo I run barrier. If teamed, I run ageless or rebirth unless I think the team will benefit more from me staying on barrier. Regardless, I'd have to be able to test the theory properly with or without ageless to see what happens. I suspect, based on the thousands of pylons I've killed in my life, that my current build without ageless would be able to sustain the added end cost of FA as long as I stay in single target mode as would be the case on a pylon run.

No clue. But I suspect a +100% damage buff for 5.25 sec at 1PPM checking every 10 seconds would have some tangible effect. I'm sure someone smarter than me has already figured out the average +DPS from it.

Sure. As I'm pool locked to Fighting, Leaping, Flight, Speed and Body Mastery, I drop boxing and take focused accuracy and stick the Guassian CFBU in it. Conserve Power and the Perf Shifter CF+end (edit: in Phys Perf) cover the end cost. Edit2: And if that doesn't cover the end cost, since we're talking pylon times, I swap ageless core for barrier core and cover the end cost AND get rid of that .17 pause between chains that I have now. DPS goes up.

Yea. I have an nrg/bio/soul scrapper, a dark/bio scrapper, a bio/claws tank, a claws/bio scrapper, a stone/bio brute, a mace/bio scrapper, a bio/rad tank, and a staff/bio scrapper. While it's just as clicky as regen, I'm just not stupid enough to call it a regen set. Since it's not a regen set. Edit: That would be like calling SR a resist based set because it has scaling resists. Or Inv a defense set because of Invincibility. Ya know, really stupid comments like that.

How exactly is a powerset with two absorption powers, damres, defense and a heal a regen powerset? It has... 2 powers that grant +regen?

Had it as my sig line for a while: CoH is the ONLY game where I've given a shit about the underlying math. I still don't know why that is but I do know it's part of the reason I still play it.

Not for speed runs of ITF. That's +0. Clear alls? Hell yea, +4 all the way.

I run followup, focus, slash, repeat with my claws/sr. It requires 313% total recharge in followup to work. My followup only has 99.88 slotted and 186.25 global for a total of 286.13 with another 10% coming from Time Lord's Boon for 296.13 and a pause of .17 seconds. Slash is slotted with 5 Hecatomb and the Achilles' Heel procs. Focus is slotted with 5 Apocalypse and the Glad Javelin toxic proc. Followup is slotted with a full set of Sup Crit Strikes. This build has a 2:45 average pylon time. What's yours? I'm not chasing procs as shown above but I am chasing defense and recharge. One LotG +rech in CJ works out well. I have this on zero characters. Odd, considering that SL covers the majority of incoming damage. Yup. Have it on all my SRs.

My apologies to everyone for using it. Bad analogy is bad.

A thousand times this. Every pool for every AT.

What about Gloom vs all the other brute/tank EPP blasts?

Game starts with a difficulty spread from 1 to 5. Power creep is added so the spread becomes 2-5 because 1 is so easy that people don't bother with it. Repeat, repeat, now the game is so easy that new systems and/or difficulty ranges have to be tacked on to the top as happened when CoH's difficulty system was changed, then with incarnate enemies and now with Aeon TF Relentless mode. How many people do you know or play with that leave the diff on +0/x1 for a character's entire leveling life? Further power creep just adds to the problem forcing the need for higher diff levels and content specifically due to all the calls from the playerbase that "the game's too easy." Edit: I didn't consider the speed-running crowd when I posted that chart or with this post. So, yea, people are still running at +0 when the only goal is the TF reward but thanks to power creep, they're completing said TFs faster and faster.

Cuz power creep don't matter. He's already stated that and expounded upon it fully. It doesn't matter so let's do it all. Because I'm making it in this thread while simultaneously making the other suggestions on the other side of the spectrum showing how ridiculous it all is, has been and continues to be. Look at those population numbers. Power creep ain't helping, and NO, the new Aeon TF diff levels didn't help either. So if power creep and escalated difficulty are both failing to retain players, perhaps MORE power creep and MORE escalated difficulty Aren't The Correct Fucking Answer.

Just as you can't know how many leave due to fighting against power creep making it a "stagnant museum piece until the remnants of the player base wither away." What we DO know is this:

That you're incapable of seeing how constant compromise towards power creep ends up with a product that's just an I Win button says everything we need to know.

As for this: how many folks have stopped playing because it's all too easy? There's 1300 people online right now. What was the population count on a Saturday night back before the snap at its highest point? Change is fine. Making the ridiculously easy even easier isn't. Might as well just grant that clear map button usable once an hour.

Fine. Lemme take shockwave at lvl 1. Appropriate for power creep and compromise.

The game DID go boom when they tried it. That was then, this is now. Code can be rewritten. Code can be fixed.

Course... then I'm gonna have so many build options we'll need to go ahead and allow for more power pools. Then, FINALLY, I can build BZB scrapper properly with nothing but powers I actually use. Slash Focused Fighting Focused Senses Agile Spin Fly Master Brawler (Since SR will get the sentinel treatment as we're in the land of dreams now!) Hasten Followup Dodge Focus Tough Weave Combat Jumping Lucky Quickness Shockwave Evasion Conserve Power Physical Perfection Provoke Assault Tactics Yea... that'd be nice. Let's do that. Edit: Cuz power creep don't matter.

And why should we stop with the pools? Many of my characters are forced to take the T1 or T2 from the primary and the T1 from the secondary and especially on the primary side end up unused and unslotted with my lvl 50 builds. Let's skip them as well and allow the T3 to be chosen at level 1. Since power creep no longer matters.

I fail to see how popular equates to good. Let's examine that. All pools get changed to T1-T3 available at lvl 4 with no prereq. T4 and T5 available at 14, T4 as long as you have 1 prereq, T5 as long as you have 2. So I'll get Tough at lvl 4 with no prereq and Weave at 14 since I have tough. Hasten at 4 and Burnout at 14. Tactics at 4 and Vengeance at 14. Aid Self at 4 and Field Medic at 14. But power creep doesn't matter so why not, right?

It is true that the rules were tossed when those running the SSPS allowed movement at lvl 4 with no prereq. But we don't have to leave that in place. We can fix bad decisions that occurred during that period. Revert all pools to how they were at shutdown including APP/PPP.

I don't disagree. I can improve my constitution without ever learning how to throw a better punch or use my feet for anything but carrying my weight around. But that's the real world. In game, all pools should follow the same rules.

Definitely time for male and large versions of fishnets and corsets.