Rumors

Also worth noting, a lot of lower level enemy groups have enemies that use assault rifles. Almost every assault rifle attack in the game used by NPCs have -Def. So, they'll quickly cascade your defenses into nothing once one or two of them hit, even if they're just minions. Around the 20s though, a lot of groups will have shifted to using their own powers and gimmicks instead of common weapons, with some exceptions such as Council, and it gets a lot easier to pick and choose the right enemy groups. So like, for example, if you have a choice, don't fight Warriors or Council. Fight Freaks or Circle. It'll get even better once the Family fade away, Warriors vanish as suddenly as they appeared, and Tsoo start getting more mystical and less swordy, among other things. You'll also start getting 95% defense debuff resistance, so you'll be nearly impossible to cascade.

A small point, but Scrappers get Confront and Stalkers get Placate. Most Scrappers don't want Confront, but if they want to Scrank, it lets them do so against hard targets without taking a pool choice. The rest of the spawn, they can either use a Taunt aura or just take the alpha strike and let the team handle the rest. Stalker tanks (Stankers? Talkers?) have to dip into Presence. Most Scrapper sets are also simpler to play effectively. Get your attack chain going and you're done. Stalkers have to do that and also keep track of Assassin Focus stacks to maximize damage. They'll probably get a chain going that does it automatically, but things like recharge debuffs and moving between enemies and other stuff can throw it off. Secondaries that utilize/interact with the Scrappers HP or HP Cap will tend to be a bit stronger, like Regen or Willpower, since they have bigger numbers to work with. Other sets, like SR, the survivability difference will be a lot more marginal. Scrappers also get a little more bang for their buck from Max HP Accolades and set bonuses, but this is a pretty small point. Non-gameplay point, but lack of Hide means you can actually look at your own/other Scrappers costumes while Stalkers are only gonna be sorta visible except in combat most of the time. This, IMO, is the most important point! No sense in being awesome if you can't look good while doing it!

Here you go. I'd probably suggest tooling around with it to see what you want out of it, since it does need improvement. Like, I think I might have too much recovery, for example. And also totally lack damage procs atm. And maybe could trim some max HP since Dull Pain goes well over the cap right now. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Sawyer Teral WIP: Level 50 Natural Scrapper Primary Power Set: Savage Melee Secondary Power Set: Regeneration Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Blaze Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Maiming Slash (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage (3) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (3) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge (5) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (5) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 1: Fast Healing (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance (7) Panacea - Heal (15) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance (17) Panacea - Hea/Recharge Level 2: Savage Strike (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (7) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage (9) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge (9) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (11) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 4: Reconstruction (A) Numina's Convalesence - Endurance/Recharge (23) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Recharge (23) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (25) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance Level 6: Quick Recovery (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod (40) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge (40) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance (40) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy Level 8: Vicious Slash (A) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (11) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (13) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage (13) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge (15) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Level 10: Dull Pain (A) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance (27) Numina's Convalesence - Endurance/Recharge (27) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Recharge (29) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (29) Numina's Convalesence - Heal Level 12: Blood Thirst (A) Adjusted Targeting - Recharge (42) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge (42) Adjusted Targeting - Endurance/Recharge (50) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff Level 14: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (36) Recharge Reduction IO Level 16: Integration (A) Miracle - Heal (17) Miracle - +Recovery (34) Miracle - Heal/Endurance (36) Miracle - Heal/Endurance/Recharge Level 18: Rending Flurry (A) Obliteration - Damage (19) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge (19) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (21) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge (21) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Level 20: Resilience (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP (37) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (37) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (37) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance Level 22: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (36) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (43) Kismet - Accuracy +6% (46) Kismet - Defense/Endurance (45) Kismet - Defense/Recharge Level 24: Super Speed (A) Celerity - RunSpeed Level 26: Boxing (A) Empty Level 28: Instant Healing (A) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance (31) Numina's Convalesence - Endurance/Recharge (31) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Recharge (31) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (34) Numina's Convalesence - Heal Level 30: Tough (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (39) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (39) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime (39) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance Level 32: Savage Leap (A) Obliteration - Damage (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge (33) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 35: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 38: Moment of Glory (A) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage (43) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime (43) Reactive Defenses - Defense/RechargeTime Level 41: Ring of Fire (A) Empty Level 44: Fire Blast (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (46) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage (46) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (50) Devastation - Chance of Hold Level 47: Fire Ball (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage (48) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge (48) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance (50) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range Level 49: Confront (A) Taunt Duration IO Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Critical Hit Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift (A) Empty Level 2: Health (A) Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration (25) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb (42) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery Level 2: Hurdle (A) Empty Level 2: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End Level 1: Blood Frenzy Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 50: Spiritual Core Paragon Level 50: Pyronic Radial Final Judgement Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface Level 50: Storm Elemental Core Superior Ally Level 50: Barrier Core Epiphany Level 50: Assault Core Embodiment ------------

I've not done some of the uppertier trials, only gotten as high as Keys, but my Savage/Regen Scrapper has done fine in them so far. Heck, on Apex, sometimes I like to stand in the blue patches for a bit just because I can get away with it. (And IH, I could probably just dance in a blue patch). Incarnates, I second Spiritual as a good one since it does just about everything /Regen wants. Destiny probably has Barrier as the best since you can use it as a second panic or anti-alpha-strike button, similar to MOG. The rest are kinda whatever you want. I can share my build if you like. And don't mind that it's a bit conceptish, could use some tweaks and improvements, and is a cheaper/mid-range cost build rather than one decked out with purples, ATOs, PvPs, etc.

Siren's Song for solo PvE, Screech for groups or any PvP. You can get away without running either of them, however, if there's something else that might be more important.

I have a Savage/Regen with 4-slotted QR with Efficacy, Performance Shifter proc in Stamina, and the Miracle, Numina, and Panacea procs/uniques. I... probably have way too much recovery under normal conditions. It helps combat end drain a bit, but Seers, Mu, and Sappers are all still friggin' evil when it comes to that. At least I never need to click Rest.

Whatever you do, don't take Radial Storm Elementals. Or any of them with the Monsoon Elemental. They like to follow close and the Monsoon has permanent Hurricane. I shouldn't need to explain how much fun that is for melee.

I actually dislike it :/ You can't reposition dead anchors, you have to keep a mental count of the time they died so they don't despawn on you at a bad moment, you have to manually toggle them off and on again between fights most of the time, you have to keep track of the anchor's position AND health in case it decides to die in a corner alone, and typically if the anchor is dropping quickly then, as long as you're putting it on the toughest enemy in the group, then the rest is usually gonna follow in short order anyway. If you don't want the anchor to move, slows and immobilizes are usually good enough. There's also the edge case of someone killing it with knock back and the anchored corpse flying into an unaggroed mob, drawing their ire. I mean, if knockback is that bad it's a big risk with a living anchor too, but it's still a small thing worth mentioning. I wish we had the option to switch between both old and new anchor mechanics so I could go back to how it was without ruining it for everyone who likes the new change.

I think IOs, despite being as strong or arguably stronger than Incarnates, are more acceptable for two reasons. These are just my guesses and are mostly observations. 1) Making an IO set build takes a lot of time and planning. Even if you just copy a build, someone had to design it. It's a very involved processed, juggling slots, enhancements, procs, bonuses, the rule of 5, and so on and so forth. And, in the end, your IO build is what you make of it. Incarnates, meanwhile, are handed out pretty easily (now) or were merely a repeatable grind (Live). There wasn't much investment in it in terms of planning. You look at your options, point at one and say "I want that one", and then you go and get it. Picking Incarnate powers is more akin to crafting generic IOs, except Incarnates take a bit more time and are shinier. 2) IO sets are subtle. In the heat of the battle, you're not gonna notice the Blaster wading into the group of enemies while they all whiff on him nor are you going to notice the Spines/Dark Brute with 10 toggles having effectively unlimited endurance. And if you do notice, you'll (probably) feel a bit of respect for the player for coming up with a build that lets them do that (or at least taking the time to find the right one to copy). Incarnates are very in your face. You're gonna notice you're basically immortal because someone's thrown shiny bubbles on you. You're gonna notice the nukes because of the big, fancy explosions and the mob you were targeting decided to take all of his friends with a dirt nap. Or someone's gonna have a big, honking Longbow Robot stomping around wrecking everything every few minutes. It's very easy to pick out when its trivializing stuff in a team situation while it's much harder to determine if your team has is having too little challenge because of too strong of set bonuses or you have too many Defenders.

There might be some cases where they can't though, such as getting nailed by a glue grenade in the middle of the room, the primary target being immovable (the Hydra AVs in DFB or Hydra Pylons in Apex) or, in some rare cases, the map being just too darn open, like some parts of the Talos Island hills map. I mean, not trying to say they shouldn't work harder to position better, they definitely should. But it never hurts to spend a pittance of inf on a jetpack for situations when it's not possible or practical.

If I recall from the AMAs, the devs had two outcomes planned for The Honoree. 1) Never cured because that felt cheap and one of the writers really didn't like just undoing major stuff like that. 2) He'd get cured just in time to bravely sacrifice himself, likely against Battalion. Sort of a redemption arc for him.

In those cases, use Fly or Hover to get above the group before using Knock Back powers. Knock Back is away from the caster, and so that'll be straight down into the floor, more or less, making it into pseudo-knock down. Not quite because some might go a few feet depending on angles, but it's far, far less scatter. If you don't have room for either power, there's pleeeenty of jetpack options in the game!

If the Battalion mobs are in the game data at all, and functional, I'd just like to actually see them and fight them somehow, period.

It's mostly content age. Looking up missions in Oroboros will arrange them in order of release date to help. But like, there's big differences after a point. Like... Synapse and Citadel both end in AV fights, but they're slogs through Clockwork or Council, respectively, in generic missions until you hit an uneventful AV battle. Compare to the Imperious Task Force, which has you doing things like pushing through armies up a hill, fighting hordes of robots while you try to destroy their control system, and ambushes from groups comprised purely of boss enemies, and more. But really, newer content in general. But most arcs will still have more ordinary missions in between the start and the climatic finale like you experienced.

I think they noticed the power creep some, at least in hindsight. I remember some AMA comments on both player power creep and enemy group power creep in response (First/Dark Ward groups are nasty compared to same-level groups). There was also going to be Incarnate content in Kallisti Warf that was ramped up to where you would need Incarnate powers to stand a chance. Like, apparently Battalion was going to be level-shifted enough that having a good set of IOs and no level/incarnate shifts would not save you and some of them would have Incarnate powers of their own, like Judgement nukes. Heck, the devs even mentioned at one point they expected players to get far too powerful both gameplay-wise and narratively-wise, at which point they probably would have had the last story arc in the game do some sort of universe reset and then they'd release City of Heroes 2. I'm not exactly here calling for nerfs, since I don't want to take power from people. I mean, I wouldn't object to nerfs to Judgement and Destiny in normal content, but I'm not calling for them. I just rather wish there was some way to adjust difficulty for powered up teams. Like... using the notoriety system to give enemies level shifts, disable set bonuses, make "incarnate" enemy groups spawn (like the Nictus-infused Council over regular Council or Knives of Vengeance over Knives of Artemis), etc.

I'd have to echo the lack of proper villainy. Redside is fine if I either want to A) Be a mercenary or B) Work for Arachnos. But if I want to be the villain, you can't. Villains are changers in most stories, they threaten and adjust the status quo. They are proactive, they drive the plot and force the heroes and protagonists to react to them. And usually the only times they try to protect the status quo is when they've already won before the story even starts. As a villain in CoX, you can't change the status quo because MMOs of the time were all about maintaining the status quo for all players for a consistent experience. If you get a cloning base, it has to be blown up at the end of the arc. If you kill someone, they're minor and unimportant. You can't destroy Paragon City, you can't rule the world, you can't actually accumulate all that money you're stealing or use all those weapons and artifacts and gadgets you're stealing. And if you do manage to accomplish anything, the arc has to reset it or somehow use it up at the end so that the game world still makes sense. In redside CoX, you either get to be a mercenary, a villain whose own plans and schemes always get foiled or amount to nothing, or someone who sets things aside for the greater good because there's a bigger bad than you.

Not really. Veteran levels on their own will get you exactly everything you need to T4 everything. Hence you can get T4 everything just doing Council Radio missions endlessly. Doing any sort of Incarnate content on top of that will speed up the process dramatically or let you take extra powers as options for the character. Basically everything will be handed to you eventually with some patience, similar to basic leveling up. On Live, the only reasonable way to obtain the new slots and materials beyond the Alpha slot was do incarnate content. You straight up could not unlock Incarnate slots beyond Alpha without doing Incarnate content and veteran levels simply didn't exist. And even if you got the slots unlocked, you still needed to do the iTrials, Apex/Tin Mage, and Dark Astoria to reliably get the materials at far, far lower drop rates. I wasn't around much after the Alpha slot days, but I recall it was grindy enough that people were getting pretty burned out on the trials and stuff. Also on Live, only subscribers could have, use, and earn Incarnate powers or do Incarnate content, so only a portion of the player base had access to that level of power to begin with.

I think they mention State's death as early as the new Atlas Park arc. It's all over the place and brought up pretty much any time States is mentioned. That or he or his references will be replaced with Positron or Miss Liberty. I thiiiink the order is... unrelated and un-updated blue content and old, flashback Tina/Maria, and most redside content > RWZ/LGTF and Cimerora/ITF > TF with Reichsman in it (I forget the contact name) > 1-20 Gold-side content > Who Will Die (while minding some older content altered States mentions) > new Tina/Maria, newer sub-level 50 stuff like Roy Cooling > the "become an Incarnate" arc in Ouroboros > Apex/Tin Mage > BAF / Lamba > Keys > Dark Astoria and trials up to Diabloique (in order of difficulty) > Belladona > remaining trials with Magistarium last > New Praetorians arc and the redside equivalent I'm sure I'm missing some, might have some a little out of order, and its a bit rough. But I think that's more or less the order. Dunno when Pandora's Box, First Ward, or Night Ward take place since never played them. You can also go to Ouroboros Flashback and see when content was added by Issue number as later content usually happens later chronologically. Edit: maybe a simpler way to put things, I can say with certainty All RWZ before any Incarnate or Praetorian content Most content in the game before Dark Astoria, Cimerora especially Who Will Die before Tina/Maria, but after RWZ and Cimerora, although those and other older content may have been updated to mention State's Death 1-20 Goldside before Tina/Maria Tina/Maria before any non-flashback Praetorian or Incarnate content Reichman's TF before any Incarnate stuff First/Night Wards probably before any Incarnate or Praetorian invasion content Incarnate TFs before Incarnate trials iTrials are in chronological order of difficulty Belladona after DA/Diabloique but before Magisterium New Praetorians and equivalent are the absolute latest AFAIK Pandora's Box is somewhere

Basically what Jack said about restrictions and stuff. Right now, the "optimal" way is to build and play is to slot your character for soft-cap defenses and then use Incarnates to buff everyone on the team to immortality, rolling nuke with Judgements, and then use a few powers to clean up the leftovers. When everyone's near unkillable and throwing out tons of damage, most of the variety of tactics falls to the wayside. Again, it's not a problem in content designed to account for this sort of stuff, but there's not much Incarnate content and there's even less that accounts for fully slotted Incarnates. EG: About half the trials, both TFs, and DA all only require you to have an Alpha slotted. Having everything at like T3 trivializes even them. There's also what I'm going to call the "Special Snowflake" effect. Without Incarnates, if you join a team with nobody matching your AT and powersets, then what you bring to that team is more or less unique. Chances are you'll have someone similar, like if you're a Blaster and there's another Blaster, but you still do things differently and have both advantages and disadvantages over each other. Assuming equal skill levels, slotting, and levels, you're gonna feel like you're bringing something to the team that the others can't perfectly replicate. And even if you run into the same AT + powerset combo on the team, you two might have build very differently. You might be an in-your-face Fire/EM Blapper while the other Fire/EM might be a Hover Blaster. Incarnates though? There's so few of them (except Lore), very little customization to them, and everyone gets them. So, it doesn't feel special. What you're doing could easily be interchanged with one or more people on the team and they'll do it at the exact same or near identical effectiveness. You can't skip Interfaces to take extra Hybrids. You can't slot your Radial Destiny to be more effective in some areas and less than others. You can't slot your Judgement for secondary effects or more up time over damage or anything. Heck, you can't even pick a Defender to get a stronger Destiny at the cost of a weaker Judgement. Everyone's about the same and you start to feel like you don't bring anything new or interesting to the table. Solo's a bit of a different story, as I've said before. You're alone, so you're the special snowflake no matter what you do. Incarnates are fine then since you have perfect control over when and where they are, and are not, used. ...honestly, it's kind of the same problem Warframe has, now that I think about it. Get into a team there with everyone running optimal builds and just screen nuking high level enemies the moment they spawn and stuff and it becomes not very fun, even if you're playing something capable of doing the same thing yourself. And its even less fun when you can't do that and therefore feel like you're being dead weight carried through the mission. As I said, the ship on getting a sufficient amount of Incarnate content that sufficiently challenges maxed Incarnates has most likely sailed, so sadly the only thing we can do without ticking off the player base is more nocarnate teams and stuff. Or see if the devs will allow options for team leads to disable that stuff in a more convenient fashion.

Yeah, I feel you on not usng Blood Thirst. That long casting time makes it feel kinda bad to use in the middle of a fight if you don't need to clear Exhausted. It does boost your damage over time by a lot if you use it at every chance, but... it still feels bad. :/ I've not had that momentum issue with Savage Leap. Are you using it with Super Speed or Super Jump active? I tend to turn off travel powers in combat, so I might not have enough momentum to bug it out with just Combat Jumping.

I can't comment much on SD. Or EM. Played them, but never got them very high way back on live. Although Lightning Rod + Shield Charge is supposed to be really fun and looks stupidly strong. According to Kael's spreadsheet, Savage has very high single target damage potential under ideal conditions. Although in practice it'll be a little bit lower due to Lethal resistance everywhere and its weirdness with crits. It's not a particularly bursty set though, since Blood Thirst has much lower damage values than normal Build Up, although it does last long and also combats Exhausted. But the damage is very steady overall. Not 100% sure how AoE compares to EM, I assume EM will be stronger if just because Lightning Rod and since Savage Leap only does max damage at max range. However, the AoE is still pretty good since Leap and empowered Rending Flurry are very big AoEs and it pairs well with an APP AoE attack to quickly clear the chaff from a spawn. You can make a good ST/AoE hybrid toon out of Savage. One difference I am aware of though is Lightning Rod apparently you can pinpoint the spot you want to go to. Savage Leap targets a mob. Therefore, LR is probably better in situations where mobs are spread out a bit but still all in range even if they do identical damage. LR also looks way cooler. Hemmorage is bad because of the combination of losing your Blood Frenzy stacks (which each give about 4% recharge/endurance discount, up to ~20% max) and going into Exhausted when empowered, which keeps you from rebuilding new stacks until it wears off. You can get around this by only using empowered Hemmorage when you have Blood Thirst (about to come) up, but Hemmorage straight-up still does not do enough damage and either still lags a little behind a basic ST chain or breaks even in terms of DPS. So, unless you like the power and/or want it for concept, you're better using the power pick and slots elsewhere. Hemmorage also has the issue where most targets weaker than an Elite Boss, and sometimes even them, go down too quickly for Hemmorage to finish ticking in a team setting. If the move hit harder, or had some utility, then it'd be an entirely different story. Stalker Hemmorage is much better, as I've heard it crits harder from stealth than Assassin's Strike and is more usable in general. But, I don't have any sort of Stalker and haven't played one since Live so... I'll let someone more experienced comment/explain there.

Part of the problem with Incarnates is there isn't enough Incarnate-level content. You have... two task forces, a number of trials, Dark Astoria, a one-off story arc, and a few repeatables in DA and... that's it I think. If there was some way to check an "Incarnate mode" to make regular missions and taskforces "Incarnate level", it'd be different. But that ship probably sailed when the game closed. DA also has a problem where, if you have all three shifts, you can only do it at an effective +1 by setting it to +4, greatly diminishing potential challenge. I think Judgement and Destiny are probably the big problems for trivializing normal content. The rest are fairly tame, but the cooldowns for Judgement and Destiny are way too low. Judgement is fun solo, but you get in a group and you'll barely need your other AoE powers due to rolling Judgements. I don't want to rip power away from anyone. I think the quick and dirty "fix" would be to give the team lead the option to disable Incarnate powers in the team (should be off by default.) Being able to do the same to set bonuses would be cool too. It'd be cool to be able to opt into that sort of challenge without having to unslot everything and make new builds.

If I could only make one Defender and level it up, I'd end up with five or six of them anyway because Defender/Corrupter altitis is much more powerful than others just because of how different the sets are. Only reason I don't have like 6 or 7 Defenders/Corrupters at the moment is due to a lack of freetime and concepts.

Savage Melee is, IMO, definitely one of the cooler new powersets that we got when the game returned. I have a blast with it, having taken a Savage/Regen Scrapper all the way up to 50 and beyond and still enjoying him. That said though, Savage definitely feels unfinished and it also has some... janky bits. I've not tried the set on all ATs, so this'll mostly be from a Scrapper's perspective, although I don't think it should change much for Tanks/Brutes on my suggestions here. So, my suggestions to fix/buff Savage Melee! There are both mechanical and asthetic suggestions here! I know tooling around with animations and sounds is probably pretty difficult for the SCORE team, but I thought I'd include them anyway. Overall mechanics -The stacks of Blood Frenzy are cool, but getting new stacks doesn't refresh/replace old stacks when you're at max, which leads to random bits of drop-off and slightly inconsistent performance. If possible, a simple fix would be to have new stacks overwrite the oldest stacks. -Scrapper critical hits are pretty erratic on this set. They all have weird, random damage values on all the powers, except Shred which absolutely cannot crit for some reason. This also reduces the value of the Scrapper ATOs on this set. Crit damage values should be redone to make them fall in-line and be consistent with other sets. -The Exhausted lockout is too darn long. Blood Thirst clearing it is very nice, but otherwise dropping your stacks already hurts performance typically, so Exhausted is just the rotten cherry on top. Trade-offs are cool and all, but dropping five stacks of Blood Frenzy, and therefore ~20% recharge/end discount, is already a big trade-off. I'd suggest reducing the Exhausted lockout to 5-10 seconds rather than 15 or just removing it entirely. Alternatively, see Blood Thirst for a bigger change and suggestion below. -Real Numbers don't work for the set, or work right at least. If possible, would be nice to fix this! -I imagine the fantasy of this set is someone that jumps in and just viciously keeps slashing and lashing at the enemy in a frenzied rage, never stopping, never quitting, just go go go until all the enemies around you are in bloodied, shredded heaps. While the low cooldown attacks and gradual speeding up help sell it, the set is actually a fairly thoughtful one instead where you need to pay attention to stacks and think about when and where you burn them. Or if you burn them. Not really sure how to address this without entirely changing the set, but I imagine it's a problem. Powers Maiming Slash and Savage Strike - Perfectly fine as is. Shred - Mechanics-wise, this move needs help. It's fine for leveling, but it's like... using Flurry. Except a bit better since it can take -Res procs, but even then it needs some super optimal scenarios to even have a chance of competing wth the rest of the set. (And we really shouldn't balance the power on the ability to take certain procs.) Savage has two wide-range AoEs as is, so I see no problem in increasing the width and reach of the cone a bit to make it more competitive as an AoE tool. Ideally, if possible, maybe with some sort of wide slash animation change. REMINDER THAT SHRED CANNOT CRIT ON SCRAPPERS! This really needs to be fixed! If the animation stays the same, then it really needs a tweak for visual and audio oomph. Just like how Sands of Mu and Flurry have the uppercut at the end, Shred needs some sort of "finisher" to the end of the animation. Non-trivial to do of course, but worth mentioning. Vicious Slash - Mechanically, the move is fine. Terms of audio/animation, it needs some tweaks. At bare minimum, I think it needs a different, maybe sort of more visceral sound effect to distinguish it from Maiming Slash. It's also possible that it has the wrong animation, with it being swapped with Hemmorage. Swapping the two would make sense, but this would increase Vicious Slash's cast time if left to perfectly match the animation time. However, if you could still interrupt the animation after the ~1.8 seconds it currently has, it might be fine. Otherwise, it'd probably need a small damage buff to keep the performance consistent. Alternatively, the Knock Up/Down could be moved to Hemmorage and Vicious Slash could receive more damage or some other debuff effect to compensate. But, I have other ideas for Hemmorage so... would prefer not that one! Blood Thirst - The cast time on this power is way too long and the buff is weaker than other Build Ups for no reason. ...okay, it lasts longer, but is that compensating the weaker build-up or the longer cast? Or the Blood Frenzy stacks? I think this power is over-balanced. Preferred change: Reduce the cast time to 1.32, same as regular Build Up. Alternative change: Increase the damage buff. Combined change: Do both and reduce the duration. Fourth change: Instate/re-instate the healing over time Blood Thirst was supposed to have. Visually/audioly, the power needs more oomph. It lacks the usual Build-Up-esque effects and sounds and the audio is has is very quiet! It at least needs the Build Up stuff and louder growing/roaring/howling/etc. Also, it'd be nice if the normal Build Up empowered sort of animation was an option in power customization, which would be great for those characters who aren't savage, but have natural claws that they're fighting with. (Or like... robots with claws or something.) BIG SUGGESTION! So, here's an idea that might better sell the savage fantasy, make exhausted more workable, and give the set a third way to burn stacks. (It really feels like it lacks ways to use its resources.) So, tweak Blood Thirst. Its current effects stay as is. However, if used at five stacks of Blood Frenzy, then the stacks are consumed and the character goes into an even more frenzied state. Now, I don't know about numbers, but I'm thinking even stronger Blood Thirst effects + even stronger Blood Frenzy effects for the duration of the power plus Rending Flurry and Hemmorage acting as if they had max stacks. Possibly some extra things too, like Fear and Placate immunity? When the power expires, then the character goes into Exhausted at the full duration (and maybe make Exhausted nastier too if need be). Under this idea, Rending Flurry and Hemmorage would only consume stacks, not Exhaust. Or, maybe alternatively, empowered Blood Thirst's exhausted would be a different, seperate crash? This would definitely give the player more options and make Savage Melee a bit more distinct. Blood Thirst could be used as an alpha strike tool or as a way to instantly recover Blood Frenzy after consuming them, like right now. Or the player could use it to go utterly nuts for a little while at the cost of a crash. I think this would be pretty cool, but would be a pretty big change and non-trivial to implement. Taunt/Confront - A customization option to use a more standard Taunt animation would be nice and appreciated by concepts where the character just happens to have claws and aren't savage. Rending Flurry - Only issue here really is the audio. It needs some sort of more visceral sound effect(s) rather than just spamming Maiming Slash's sfx. A different visual and/or audio for use at max stacks would be nice, but hardly necessary. Hemmorage - As it stands, Hemmorage is a net-loss of damage no matter how you use it. Except Stalkers, they have a better version apparently that is actually worth using. A really simple fix here would be to make other versions more match Stalker Hemmorage. Hemmorage could also stand to tick a bit faster since it's not uncommon for teams to kill the target before the move does its thing. A more complicated fix? Hemmorage should be the "big, tough target" killer. The idea is you're making them bleed out, so instead of just shoving more damage into the attack, we could stick something like a -Regen, -healing received, -recovery, -res, and/or other debuffs here that scale with the number of stacks used on the move. I mean, hey, if someone just gave you internal bleeding then you're gonna be more vulnerable and not be able to walk it off or heal as easily! Adding those sorts of debuffs would still leave Hemmorage as a more niche option, but it'd be a really good option in certain scenarios. Also, I said a bit about mechanics and visual/audio on Hemmorage in Viscious Slash's part. that all applies here still! ...when writing the draft, I miswrote "internal bleeding" as "eternal bleeding". I suppose making empowered Hemmorage tick for an incredibly long time would also really drive it into the "big tough target killer" role. Savage Leap - Mechanically, it's mostly fine. Two things though: First, sometimes the damage/effects don't trigger. Not 100% sure what causes it, but it's most easily noticable if you use it from melee range against the giant mech in the Market Crash Trial, where Savage Leap will fail to do anything almost all the time. I think it might be related to hit boxes? Second: the move does more damage at a distance. It could be nice to light the move up with an orange circle if the chosen target is at optimal range to make this mechanic more clear. And maybe mention it in the tooltip? Beyond that, the power needs more visual and audio-oomph. For the top tier power of a powerset, it's really lacking. It needs some sort of landing impact visual/audio and maybe a very slight wind-up time to give more the illusion of a leap. (With the right tweaking, the wind-up could be included without increasing the cast time much or at all.) The actual hit sound could, again, stand to be something more oomphy than Maiming Strike's hit. And, hmmm, I think that about covers everything. Overall, I think the set is in a pretty good place, but it could really use some adjustments for better flow, making some powers more useful, and selling its fantasy better.

Hemmorage is a DPS drop on Scrappers in most, if not all, situations. Stalkers, I think, can actually get a DPS boost from running it though, Shred is good for filling your attack chain leveling up, but is pretty terrible by the time you can get a solid chain with Savage, Maiming, and Vicious Strikes. Even with the -Res Proc, it does not fire off very often and you'll have to spend a loooot of time animating Shred over and over and over to get much use out of it. It might be worthwhile if you can line up multiple hard targets with Shred consistently but... that's pretty uncommon. Take Pylon numbers with a bit of a grain of salt since they're very specific situations, but running a chain of 5-slotted Vicious > Maiming > Savage > micro gap, which is a sub-optimal chain if you don't have the recharge to rid of the gap, takes down Pylons about 5 minutes faster than running Shred with Achilles Heel debuff. You add procs, ATOs, and Incarnate powers to that and the above chain is just gonna start getting a lot faster. I can link to the post I did the run if you wanna see in more detail. Shred also gets a bit outclassed in the AoE department. 5-Stack Rending Flurry and Savage Leap are both wide-area and can wipe all the minions in a spawn if they're close enough together if you use Blood Thirst as an alpha strike. Or you can mix in an APP/PPP AoE, like Fireball or Ball Lightning to do it every spawn. At that point, you can just focus the toughest target in the group with your single target chain and throw your AoEs as they come up everything should drop at more or less the same time. And of course, Taunt/Confront is situational whether you want it or not. And for reference, I'm also Savage/Regen. The combo is so endurance light is obscene. Only ever had endurance issues that couldn't be solved with a blue was when I was being sapped or hit with recovery/end cost debuffs.