tidge

Sometimes I'm curious how deep a user will self-brigade an idea that has been demonstrated to be poorly considered.

I saw the response about Rage crashes... obviously it is only during play that you can make some assessments. Unslotters are cheap! I only wanted to comment on the Radiation part... I have somewhat strong (personal, not "right v. wrong") opinions on how I build the offensive side of Tankers that don't align with the direction you've chosen, so I don't feel the need to yuck-in-the-yum, as it were. (*1) The only other aspect of the primary that I think might be worth taking a harder look at is Gamma Boost. It has an interesting mechanic where the Regeneration improves with damage taken, which may not be obvious from MIDS. For Tankers/Brutes (i.e. "big sacks of HP") I usually try to 2-slot Numina's Covalescence (Heal/Absorb and the +Regen/+Recovery) somewhere, Gamma Boost would be my choice. Those two-pieces can yield a strong triple-whammy of Regeneration on top of Gamma Boost giving it to you when you really want it. (*1) The closest I'll get to being critical about the offense I see here is this: The build looks like an effort to simply get as many %damage attacks as possible... and I'm not quite sure what the anticipated attack chain would be, (read this as "are there too many attacks?") and at what level content you will be trying to maximize offensive output. There are other options for similar %damage attacks available earlier than the epic pools. I single out the epic pools because often I (for personal reasons) typically don't invest many slots in powers after level 35, because the slot investment came earlier in the build.

Here I was, wondering which of my unread threads in the suggestion forum contained my weekly dose of you know what....

Re-read the post immediately above by @Zect especially about how slotting a Very Rare set vs. franken-slotting for %damage isn't always clear-cut. Minor comments about the Radiation choices. Even though Radiation is a Resistance set, I would try to get at least one 4xUnbreakable Guard bonus (+3% Melee Defense) and single-slot Beta Decay with an HO Enzyme for Endurance Reduction, -ToHit, -Defense instead of the %proc. My own choice for Radiation Therapy (with its base accuracy of 3.0!!!!) Would be Touch of the Nictus Heal/Recharge and %Negative (for more Health), 3 more %damage, and then one of the two Tanker ATO procs (because each also has a Recharge component). I'd have to take a hard look at the Secondary's timing and proc rates to decide which one makes more sense, but without looking at all, I'd lean towards the %Absorb from Superior Gauntleted Fist

Hard agree. For my squishier characters (and most "control" types), I will often play solo at -1x3 in lower levels once I have some AoE. The level shift is enough to alter the relative ToHit chances (both ways!) to make solo missions more exciting (and rewarding). This choice has the side effect (for solo play) of quicker collecting more defeats for a variety of badges/accolades in an organic way... like Arachnos Wolfs and Family. Obviously these sort of things can be street swept later, but I see this as a sort of "one stone, two birds" approach.

If you have never tried Combat Teleport on a melee character, let this be the first one that you do try it on.

In my experience, it takes a lot for Singularity to get overwhelmed. Things like multiple +3 spawns where the Singularity has most of the aggro. I have had the Singularity be quickly taken out, but it is far more common that it takes a surprising amount damage (for my Dom) until I can get around to locking whatever is attacking it down. With Power Up, even with its short duration, I wouldn't go deep into a pool just to get a second, similar power. <- This isn't me throwing shade at Adrenal Booster, it's more that the secondary includes a faster recharging power, so why burn a pool choice to chase another one?

As noted: franken-slotting with %damage costs (some, all) set bonuses but can (randomly) increase damage (and variety of damage types) for low-base-damage powers more than simply enhancing the damage aspect of those same powers (via sets or even common IOs). There is the "damage buff cap" but without an external source of such a buff, it takes some effort to get to that point. Hecatomb (as a set) is somewhat interesting to me. It has a hard-hitting and high PPM %Energy piece (obviously). It's set bonuses are the somewhat typical ones (I value the 4- and 5-piece bonuses to Accuracy and Global Recharge). The 6-piece bonus is (for me) very situational. I think it may only be on Energy Aura characters that I went out of my way for extra Toxic/Psi resistance via 6-slots. Often I use five Hecatomb on high-tier powers that no matter how much global recharge aren't going to be available multiple times in a fight... %damage is reliable in those types of powers, but +damage (via enhancements) is too! Across the whole build there is often another, lower-damage power that I prefer to put %damage in.

I'm eternally waiting to see evidence that "Brutes was nerfed (five years ago)". The only across-the-board "subtraction" from Brutes was the lowering of the damage buff cap, which was explicitly lowered from 775% to 700% because of the changes to Fury. I haven't seen any evidence that Brutes got worse in 2020, just that Tankers got better... and that for some classes of builds for some content, Tankers have "faster clear times" than Brutes post i26p4. Unspoken for many of these "But won't anyone think of the Brutes?" threads is that these (slight) differences in "performance" between melee classes are dominated by consideration of full level 50 builds (with or without Incarnates) and pretty much ignore the progression and build possible build/slotting choices as different ATs level up. Tankers and Brutes have different level choices for similar powers; Scrappers and Brutes have different combat fundamentals while leveling. As for what has "been offered"... Increasing resistances for Brutes isn't going to do anything for Brute clear times, as "being defeated" isn't much of a problem for any of the melee classes. The suggestion to increase Brute's survivability to Tanker levels because "Tankers got a damage modifier increase from 0.8 to 0.95" is simply a tit-for-tat ask that would do nothing except make the two classes even less distinct, and would probably not change relative "clear times", unless there is something like a couple of enhancement slots across some builds that could be shuffled. My personal assessment of ATOs across all the ATs is that the Brute ATO %procs (even considering Brute's Fury) don't really stand out as being the least useful... some ATO %proc are clearly great, others not so much. Utility certainly varies across levels and builds, again I feel like the focus is on level 50 builds.

I addressed this problem by keeping multiple macros in the different form "trays".(*1) Having multiple key/mouse binds would work as well, but I use a similar single choice for all my non-Kheldians and ended up just keeping the one key/mouse-bind. There is a sort of similar issue for my characters that have more than one way to teleport (e.g. Burst of Speed and Translocation). (*1) This somewhat depends on how "busy" my trays are. My typical binds and macros for something like Combat Teleport are /bind shift+lbutton "powexec_name Combat Teleport" /macro_image "StaffFighting_StaffMastery" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Combat Teleport" /macro_image "StaffFighting_AssassinsStaff" "BACK" "powexec_location Back:25 Combat Teleport" The third one is only typically used on characters with some sort of cone attack, but it could be repurposed as an escape mechanism. As a bonus, here is a macro I've been using for characters with the Sorcery pool that don't keep Mystic Flight toggled on, but want something similar to Combat Teleport. /macro_image "Archery_Aim" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Translocation$$powexecname Mystic_Flight"

To answer the title question of the thread: I think Savage Melee is best on Brutes, but I will disclose that I am not relying on an assessment of comparison that relies on using Cross Punch or Pylons. Savage Melee certainly feels suboptimal on Scrappers. It isn't miserable, just that it feels like getting Fury bonuses on the DoT would be better for this primary. This thread was resting in peace, and after a straightforward question about the change to the Brute Damage Cap (from January 2020) we immediately get a rehearsed monologue of "Brutes were nerfed" that several other users felt obligated to explain the circumstances around why (a) there was no "Brute nerf" and (b) bringing Tankers up so that they don't take an order of magnitude longer to clear maps than any other melee is a good thing. Luckily we didn't get re-burdened with the famous "testing" that shows one player's clear times are all roughly equivalent for content that ignores other ATs ... because that "analysis" is about seconds of difference which is treated like it is the end of the world... and all signs point to the "Brute nerf" being the consensus loss of "herp derp, Brutes great, Tankers bad" claims. If certain players hadn't been so eternally willing to default to being so public about "Brutes >> Tankers" I don't think we'd see so much hair-pulling. Tankers were somewhat irrelevant on Live before CoV because Scrappers could pretty much do what Tankers could do, especially once the levels above 40 opened up. As noted recently in this thread: There isn't a LOT of design space for distinguishing among melee classes, especially once they share 90%+ of primary/secondary choices. My personal suggestion (that I wouldn't really want to see implemented, out of respect for existing Brutes) for the Brute AT would be to take a page out of the Sentinel playbook... and somehow make the Fury mechanic work like an enemy debuff (in melee)... because melee has basically run out of design space for the "make this AT hit HARDER" and/or "make this AT resist BETTER". If Brutes could reliably debuff enemies that ought to both "improve solo Brute clear times" (even though I think this is already a marginal concern) and "why team up with a Brute?" (even though I see no shortage of Brutes in team play).

I think @Nemu hit the most salient point: Mental Manipulation's lack of a toggle sustain makes it harder (but not impossible) than other secondary choices to build a higher-performing Blaster. The Storm primary can be a little tricky to leverage, but since solo play was emphasized I don't think the common complaints about Storm will turn out to be that big of a deal. My personal advice in this circumstance (new to Blasters) if you aren't trying for a specific concept would be to pick a secondary (with a level 20 toggle sustain) that either: Let's you stay at range, when you prefer, and/or Has powers that you could either skip or play with different choices as you level up Plant Manipulation is IMO a good secondary that allows for skipping powers. I'd suggest skipping Skewer, Ripper, and Thorn Burst. The remaining enemy-affecting powers are mostly controls/debuffs. Tactical Arrow is an "all range" secondary that you don't need to take all of the "attacks", but are worth experimenting with.

I can explain some of my reasoning. Low level attacks already have pretty quick recharge times, which pretty much only get better with common slotting choices. At low levels "gaps in attack chains" can be trivially filled with S.T.A.R.T. vendor attacks, including up to three free "prestige" attacks. Below level 10, there is no "perma-Hasten" so it isn't as if the extra recharge is a constant feature of the character. Below level 10, powers are very unlikely to have enough slots in them to handle the endurance burn from using them, in addition to the Hasten drop Endurance cost. As I've written before: If a player is focused 100% on only level 45+ play, I can understand why Hasten could be taken at any time in that build. For (much) lower level content it is a pick that IMO "costs too much" for a LOT of content without giving that much in return. If I >squint< can almost see a possible exception for a character that wants to have something like Howling Twilight (base recharge time of 3 minutes, available at level 6) to recharge faster, but that would still essentially require delaying the use of a sub-level 10 Hasten until only after casting Howling Twilight.

It is common in *my* builds that the final three (or four, or five) power picks are chosen to "mule" certain Enhancement pieces. I like to get both the flavor and the power of the character mostly built by level 30 power picks. I have exceptions, but that is my general approach. Stealth and Infiltration are mules for LotG Def/+Recharge (and/or 20% Slow Resistance from Winter's Gift when I was experimenting) . The Concealment pool is a very convenient pick for Defense mules (plus the travel power). I happen to find that these two picks are superior (in utility) to Grant Invisibility for most of my characters. Aid Other was chosen as a mule for the %Absorb piece. As noted above, Combat Jumping may be the lowest Endurance cost toggle in the game. When not using it for LotG, it is a convenient early level pick for the Kismet +ToHit piece (which helps improve the damage of Fast Snipes)... IIRC the Targeting Drone slotting gets me just under 22% +ToHit, and the Sniper attack is somewhat late in this build so I passed on the Kismet piece. If I was trying to put Fly into the build above, I guess Wall of Force is the power to drop, and replace either the Leaping or Concealment pools with the flight pool. I've delayed Unleash Potential, but having it as early as possible is something I find to be a big help on lower level content. You should be able to rejigger the mules, have Flight early (for concept) and repurpose some slots. <- This kind of decision point (wanting powers for concept, wanting powers like from the Force of Will pool for utility, running out of pool choices) kinda gives the game away why *I* don't blindly add Hasten to Dominators, but instead chase the set bonuses to get the global recharge necessary for perma-dom (down to 22). I know the reasons why folks (especially Dominators) take Hasten below level 20, but I feel like I get so much out my enemy-affecting power picks before level 20 I'd rather not sacrifice/delay any of them just to have Hasten.

I've never been a fan of Trip Mine (or its variants). Part of it comes down to its a lot of effort to pull off the sorts of tricks that come to mind, and I'm not sure it isn't faster just to eradicate enemies with direct attacks. Eventually, I'd want to place Trip Mines while in the middle of enemies and I don't know how that would go over in regular play. Also: I got a LOT of teleporting unwilling enemies around out of my system on Live. I've come to see Wormhole as more of a reliable mass Stun that has a side effect of lining up those teleported.

My Grav/Arsenal Dom went with Unleash Potential, see snapshot below :

I am always spending the Blue Bar, so I prioritize +MaxEnd and +Recovery. I will eventually spend some of the Green bar, so +HP is welcome (it also synergizes well with Scaling Damage Resistance) +Regeneration is a lower priority, except on Tankers/Brutes (big sacks of HP) and resistance-based Scrappers/Stalkers/Sentinels.

Technically true, but also IMO a waste of slots for a Mastermind. /Cold MMs should take the Ice Shield, and primarily only consider Infrigidate for debuffing hard targets. %Damage away on a different AT that needs the single-target DPS boost, MMs will have their henchmen. I agree that Marine *is* an 'overperforming' set, but after thinking about it... it really only becomes this way (offensively) on teams, so solo ATs with lots of henchmen, pets, pseudopets are where it sees the largest performance jump. I'm not sure TPTB actually see this as an issue... it seems like this is exactly how it was intended to perform (sort of like Plant Control is OP compared to most other control sets).

The base Accuracy of Rise to the Challenge is "only" 1.0, so in addition to the toggle giving it a poor chance, the ToHit chance won't be particularly good (against higher con enemies). For Tankers, I typically only opt to include the Perfect Zinger %Psi piece in attacks. Some Tanker primaries have good candidates, but not IMO Willpower. I don't even use %Psi in Taunts, because I like the set bonuses from Mocking Beratement better, and the max number of targets for a Taunt is only 5.

In the Homecoming era, IMO there isn't much solo-experience different between the melee classes. Tankers are a fine choice, as they will get generous amounts of HP and the larger range of melee powers is very nice, even without trying to fine-tune a build with enhancements.

Regarding Accuracy and ToHit, when considering %damage, here is what I typically do for my characters: 1) Any power with multiple %damage (or other %procs, like %-Res) pieces will also include Accuracy enhancement(s). A power that misses won't apply *any* damage. Typically this is via Accuracy/Endurance Reduction (and/or Accuracy/Damage/Endurance) franken-slotting, boosted if possible... or when I don't care about whatever the set bonus might be. In long recharge powers, this can be Accuracy/Recharge instead. Some powers simply get an Accuracy IO. There are some subtleties depending on the specific power: Some candidate %damage powers have a really good base accuracy, so adding accuracy isn't strictly necessary Some good %damage candidate powers don't take Accuracy pieces, but can get Accuracy boosts from Enhancement Sets (*but not HO/DSyncs) Neither henchmen, pets, nor pseudo-pet attacks benefit from any +Accuracy or +ToHit set bonuses that apply to player, unless the source is an aura that affects all friendlies. These almost always need to have accuracy slotting (especially if level shifts for henchmen are in play). 2) Players can benefit from enhancement bonuses +ToHit (e.g. Kismet) and global +Accuracy (e.g. most purple sets) bonuses such that they might be able to skimp on accuracy slotting in some powers for some content. Mileage varies of course, especially if a player is being debuffed or facing +N enemies. A tool like MIDS can help assess, but scaling across levels of content and difficulty settings can make this a little complicated. The second point occasionally rears its head when a player leaning hard into %damage plays content and they can't land many attacks... so like a +3 Synapse or Yin TF.