Bill Z Bubba

You're very welcome. I used it for the first time a couple nights back. It's pretty cool.

Fun fact: Pylons use an AoE attack but it's typed Range. I've never understood why. Made double weird because it's listed as Area Lethal under Attack Type but at the top of the page it shows Ranged Lethal +KB. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=rikti.war_zone_pylon.swarm_missile&at=boss_archvillain There's probably a LOT more weirdness like this than we'd care to know.

No, it would be a total rework on several of the sets. Bio, Nrg, Ice, Stone, and even Willpower all have powers that grant only typed defense. I don't necessarily disagree but attempting to rework how defense functions in this game is absolutely the wrong way to deal with those issues. Nerfing set bonuses, powers like scorpion shield, rune of protection, unleash potential, etc, blocking incarnate powers in all non-incarnate content, purging level shifts, these are all options and none of them, including a complete defense rework across the game, are going to happen. Yes, the game is too easy. And it's just going to get easier. But at least now there is content that I can't solo.... until I start abusing all the things I've chosen not to abuse so far, of course. And we ALL have the ability to remove a bunch of these problems ourselves. Nothing is stopping anyone from running SO only builds.

Nope. SR has 6 powers that buff defense. 3 toggles and 3 passives. 1 each for melee, 1 each for range and 1 each for aoe. Many attacks in this game are dual typed with both a Positional Value and a Typed Value. https://cod.uberguy.net./ That link has all the info you need but if you drill down to a specific power you'll find Attack Type. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=blaster_ranged.archery.aimed_shot&at=blaster That's Archery Aimed Shot. Under Attack Type it shows Ranged, Lethal. If that is used against someone with Ranged or Lethal Defense, the higher of the two values is used. Psychic Wail, on the other hand, is Area, Psionic. Same story, if I have both AoE and Psi Defense, the higher value will be used. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=blaster_ranged.psychic_blast.psychic_wail&at=blaster For the most part, this is how it works although some attacks are untyped vs position and some are just flat out autohit. What you may be thinking of are some Set IO Bonuses like the bonuses in Reactive Armor that buff both a Positional Value and a Typed Value. But to the statement, NO, capping to Melee or Ranged will NOT cap you to AoE. It has to be capped on its own.

Too bad that spawn I'm trying to kill is inside that 60ft radius. Guess I'll go solo somewhere else on the map instead.

It completely screws over defense based sets while barely harming resistance sets. It would also involve reworking every typed defense based set completely. AoE Defense is already exclusively AoE Defense. Not sure what you mean there. The game is too easy mostly because of IOs and Incarnates and partly due to powercreep in AT changes. Getting SOs at level 2 ain't helping even if I love that particular change. Defense and how it functions isn't the problem.

What kind of times might I expect to be facing on such an endeavor?

Huh. My SG ports me around when I go afk to GET me killed.

It's not mandatory. The screaming of SHAME while ringing that damn bell gets annoying after a while, though.

Sweet! How was that last Rom fight? Same thing? Cycle through the 4 buffs and no issue? Conversely, my lvl 18 fire/regen brute is getting beat up by +1/x3 council due to the lack of any of that.

I've certainly spent a billion on the various BZBs with respecs/rebuilds/etc but as time has gone on, more alts deleted, more bins filled, these days builds are cheap. Recycling for the win.

This has been my experience with BSOD, the SG I run with. We may occasionally plot and scheme but it's always us doing that together. Not once have I ever been asked to bring something else to anything. If one amongst us senses it might be good, we offer.

That's the thing in my mind about tanks. It takes so much less build effort to hit the caps, compared to the other melee ATs, that you're left with plenty of slots/options for cranking out more damage.

I concur. Only time I go Mane over CJ is when I know I also have to grab assault and/or tactics.

Cuz electric assault ain't electric blast. Will take extra work which is the same reason sents didn't get seismic blast.

Import/Export Export Build to Beta - it'll ask where your installation is and it creates a new directory under Data Log into Beta, use Freebies menu, Import MRB or something like that, brings up popmenu with two options, 1st grabs first 70 enhs, 2nd grabs the rest.

Been back to soloin from 1 to 50 instead of PLing alts and I'm finding that it means I'm slotting at least the unique IOs as soon as I'm allowed. SOs end up getting replaced by lowish level sets. Often just grabbing whatever is in my base bins. If I already have a build to follow on the way up, I'll use the non-purple set that correlates in buff values to the purple set I plan to use at 50.

Yup. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/modifiers-table.html?mod=default You're looking for melee_damage and range_damage and 1 = 55.6102 at level 50

Brutes are .75 for melee and range. Tanks are .95 and .8 for melee and range. Scrappers are 1.125 and .5 for melee and range. No, none of that makes any damn sense. At least as per the HC wiki and CoD. CoD, at least, should be mostly accurate. Mashugana. it's kind of a mess with the 4 melee archetypes right now. Stalkers are the kings of ST damage, generally have lousy AoE damage but are generally as sturdy as scrappers. Scrappers will dish out more damage than brutes and tanks, have the same base values for mitigation as brutes except for base hitpoints where brutes have more. Brutes will dish out more damage than tanks but have less hitpoints while having tank caps for mitigation. The fact that the base values are the same as scrappers, however, means that in most cases, they'll have to be teamed with buffers to see those caps hit. This is also true for their much higher damage cap. Unless they're chugging red inspirations, of course. Tanks do the least amount of damage per attack (ignoring fury which we can't ignore) but have buffs to AoE sizes and max # of targets hit. The base values on their armors are 25% better than their cousins.

I'm pretty sure that you're well aware that soloing has ALWAYS been BadWrong, a blight upon this fine MMO and the primary cause of everything wrong in the world.

And being able to import from Mids to get all the enhs in your tray is really handy.

AS is AoE. DB is ST. As for actual times, AS animation 2.933 with arcanacast time of 3.168 DB animation 2.667 with arcanacast time of 2.904. So yea, it is slower but can hit 10X the number of enemies.

I always dig it when I see other forum dwellers in game.

It is fun. Soloing a PB at very low diff right now through content. It's fun. I like being reminded that something else in this game can feel good even if it's not optimized to slaughter +4 AVs. My Khels will never be able to pull off what some of my melee characters are capable of. But they can still be fun as hell to play. Only question I have at that point is why I have to play at half the diff of my melee characters to look cool. I don't consider that balanced. Guess I'm in the nerf 'em all to hell group.

Incarnates won't matter during a Manticore. Forced exemplar means powers will cap out 40. But huge numbers of alts and attempting to get TFC on them all is going to mean a playerbase full of people that have memorized maps, mission goals, next zone, add in everybody sportin all the team ports, no breaks between missions... Sure.. IF everyone but that one poor true level 35 on the team is 100% tricked out IO-wise, then MAYBE they might feel under-utilized. But even that I doubt. Usually such teams are also rocking tons of leadership, meaning even if they're fighting +5s, they're going to be hitting, contributing, etc.