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I'm going to springboard off this post... The fundamentals of damage-to-defeat critters as the basis of almost all rewards in the game (Inf, XP, drops, etc.) is why I think the current implementation of %damage (i.e. "procs") is so healthy for the game's variety. I doubt I would enjoy a game where "game balance" directly turned "controls" into equivalent rewards as for defeats. I rather like the current state of the game where I can construct control ATs to lean hard into the controls or mix it up with some %damage. How to make Controllers "feel better" for controlling? I don't really know. My Controllers are less bothered by fast-moving +Nx8 content by the opening thesis of the original post... maybe it is experience with which critters to focus on? Maybe it is the variety of controls/debuffs/buffs I typically make sure to have available? My controllers tend to get peeved when there are enemy critters that have a seeming endless amount of protection and/or resistance and also engage in "run away" AI antics. Igneous, Warwolves are common critters, but there are some EB level enemies. Basically, whenever it becomes extremely difficult for a solo controller to "stack" enough control onto some of these rather common enemies, I get a little peeved... it's not like Warwolves have some special weakness that balances their crazy behavior.

Here is another vote for "you don't need to get multiple levels in a single session". One of the nice features of the current Homecoming is that players can choose their T7/T8/T9 powers (as well as most of the Epics) earlier in a character's career. The positives manifest themselves in many ways; one of them is that it is possible to experiment with a more-or-less complete suite of powers for a character earlier than we used to be able to do on Live. Obviously we are waiting for more enhancement slots between 35 and 50, yet I like to see how those powers are working for me to get an idea of what sort of attack chains should I be using, what quality-of-life slotting should be considered, and if there are any hidden gem powers I can leverage. Writing only for myself: I find it easy to slip into a mode of thinking that I've "solved" certain power sets and ATs. That is: I am tempted to look at a power set, identify the optimal power picks and slotting choices, and "see" what the level 50 build will be and imagine how it will play. I fight this mode of thought on almost every character I build... and the levels 30-50 are key for me to get a feel for the choices I'm making. It is common that I discover something subtle about slotting choices. It is not that rare that I find some power to be of low utility and can drop it. I suppose it is possible to do a similarly deep level of testing with a level 50 build (as I have done this too!) but I find I learn more about the various choices by playing content up to 50.

I'll answer "No, it is not merely risk acceptance." Answers follow for %damage procs. Sometimes the damage component of a power is low enough that sometimes more damage (via a proc) is better than simply boosting the damage component via an enhancement. Sometimes a player (points to self) wants "off brand" damage, even if it comes via %proc. For example, there are some enemies that resist Psi a lot, so having non-Psi damage in a character that does mostly Psi can yield improvements in clear times. There are other factors that play into the decision, on top of "what can I do to improve %proc chances", but those are the two primary things I consider. Some players appear to slot %procs just because they can.

I hear you... I did a cursory glance at other power pools to see which ones had 4 of 5 powers be toggles, and I didn't see any. While looking I wanted to see which ones (if any) had 4 of 5 powers that didn't affect enemy critters, and I also didn't notice any. As I wrote, Flight pool strikes me as being odd... I take those four toggles on MMs, and almost always three of them on "fliers", without complaints... it's partially that when I am in another travel power pool I always feel like I have more variety of options, with the possible exception of Concealment.

I find myself concentrating on these, roughly in order: Characters I am leveling Characters I am "finishing" (accolades, certain temp powers, sometime incarnates) Characters I am "accumulating" with (AH, merits) When I have to pick from my roster teaming, I prefer to use a character that has some "hybrid" characteristics, like control/damage or buff/debuff. If it is more of a low/no AoE character I try to go with damage/survivability.

On Blue I like to run the Tina and Marie missions in PI. On Red, this is the time to run the Patron arcs among others. Basically: do the stuff you need for accolades.

Wall of Force on Tankers, slotted with %damage (because Tanker Ranged Damage Scaling), is something I find fun to use. I primarily use Unrelenting as a damage buff, or when characters are being ground down by enemies. It also is a rez.

I had a similar experience at the Department of Motor Vehicles... except that the other person had outstanding warrants! I had to suggest that the state office check the driver's license information... of the state-issued license I was renewing.... before I could conclude my business.

Since Penny Yin is the weekly, I ran a few more non-Brutes through the Penny Yin TF at +0x1 Beam/EA Sentinel: 12m 20sec. Warshade: 20m 20sec. Obviously both Brute and Tankers need to be nerfed to make the Warshade feel better. /s

Imagine if the final power in the Flight pool was a toggle that made you fly faster.. oh wait... Excuse, back to the Medicine pool. TL;DR: I think it is fine. Re-read the post by @Glacier Peak above. I don't see the role of the Medicine pool to be to turn characters without healing powers into healers, I see the pool as a way to give a limited number of healing/support powers to characters that want them... plus (as mentioned in the referenced post) a pretty good %damage melee attack option. I'm not categorically opposed to making some updates to the Medicine pool, for reasons: #1 The Medicine pool occupies a peculiar, particular part of design space from my PoV... there isn't often much need for healing (+status) that can't be addressed by the use of Inspirations... or just running away and allowing Regeneration to do its thing. Since Inspirations are essentially just 'click powers', I don't know why a character who invests an actual power pick needs to have those early powers be interruptible. #2 In a lot of team play (in my experience), preemptively applying the Absorb from Spirit Ward (Sorcery pool) to someone on the team who is likely to be taking damage is probably superior to retroactively applying Aid Other to someone that has taken damage. This doesn't sit right with me.

I find the Flight pool to be something of an odd duck. I don't know what I'd want changed about it, but here are my thoughts, pretty much every time I play my characters who went deep into the Flight pool: Air Superiority: I like that this power is in the pool! Alternate melee attack with a fun animation. Hover and Fly: Not the same thing, but kind of the same thing. Obvious differences that we all know and love, I find I need both but then... Evasive Maneuvers: makes Hover and Fly "better"... but I primarily only use it for +Fly speed... and I think this is because I have run out of slots for Hover and Fly! Group Fly: Unique sort of power that I think is fine for what it is. Sidestepping Group Fly's potential effect on teammates (because henchmen/pets), 4 of the 5 powers are strictly affecting only the player picking the pool... which is a little bit of an outlier. For me... it feels like Evasive Maneuvers is the oddball. I like having the "flight control"... lack of control while using Flight is a design feature of the game I know... but it feels weird to me to have to (a) pick an extra power and (b) toggle it on and (c) have the other power(s) also toggled on to get the full effect. It's not as if there aren't other powers in pools that aren't "auto". I also don't like keeping it in my power tray! I suppose if I was going to propose a change to the Flight Pool, it would be to make Evasive Maneuvers an Auto power.

IIRC: Confront is an auto-hit in PvE, Provoke (presence pool) requires a ToHit check in PvE.

Don't forget Unrelenting in the Presence pool! The predicate picks in the Presence pool are generally not as useful IMO. I frequently take either Sorcery or Force of Will, and the rationales go something like this... If I want to have a power to free my character of mezz effects, I'll go Sorcery... I usually will pick Mystic Flight as the travel power, and Spirit Ward as a mule for the %absorb piece from Preventive Medicine. Rune of Protection becomes a mule for at least one Resistance set global piece. I have taken Arcane Bolt for flavor, or when I could drop it in as a ranged attack. Enflame isn't terrible, but a character needs a specific reason to take it because usually I can find another power that I can leverage for better overall effect. For Force of Will: I rather like Mighty Leap as a travel power, as it can be really fast for crossing zones. I almost always take Weaken Resolve on the path to Wall of Force (I like having a ranged cone at level 14!), and if I have a leftover power pick then I will pick up Unleash Potential. I have a couple of characters that Wall of Force didn't make sense to have so it got skipped. The build issue I have with Unleash Potential is that it requires slots to be really useful (if can mule pieces, but that seems like such a waster) and (IMO) the build needs some global recharge to get it to the point where a character can really count on it. Unrelenting is similar in its need for slots. I feel like I have one character that opted for Project Will over Weaken Resolve... if so it must have been a circumstance where I not only wanted a ranged attack, but I also had enough slots to put into it for some sort of enhancement set bonus. I've tried to get as much mileage out of the Experimentation pool, but I am less impressed. I really like Corrosive Vial, and Experimental Injection is a decent enough power to mule a healing piece. Adrenal Boost is another long-recharge excellent set of self-boosts, but I kinda hate that the slotting options are so limited. I think I've only picked this power for certain Tankers for which I've specifically not hit certain levels of resistance (because of powers or slotting choices) for damage types, such that clicking it is enough to cover a situation when I need it. I have really mixed feelings about Speed of Sound as a travel power. I like the Jaunt aspect, I often use it as a sort of Combat Teleport. I'm mostly meh on Super Speed as a travel power because of zone geometry... but what really gets me is that as soon as I jump while traveling with Speed of Sound, I basically lose forward momentum and become slooooow. I always feel like I have to have extra temp powers that are constantly being used to get around zones.

I don't know if @Haijinx was actually promoting the "easiest" as a preferred solution, or as simply repeating the sort of nonsensical suggestion that is often made by a handful of forum members. I certainly agree that any suggestion taking something away from another AT to "make Brutes better" is a complete non-starter. Surely we recognize that HC CoX is not a zero-sum game between Brutes and Tankers?

As a thought experiment: Would Brutes be happier if the Brute inherent was swapped with another ATs inherent, such as what the Kheldians or VEATS have?

I'd certainly use your version of Mids to see if adding a 50+5 Numina Health piece to Health improves the Regenration in a noticeable way. Slotting Health by itself helps with Regeneration, and the 2-piece Numina bonus is IIRC a regeneration increase. Otherwise... your Invuln build is doing things radically different enough that I don't have an easy answer. My own invuln build burns the green bar a little faster than I'd recommend for EXTREME content... but that is something less than 0.1% of my play time... so a little more Regeneration would help me in a way that may not help you. If more Regeneration doesn't do much, I'd look at what the Hit rolls look like for the extreme content, as Tough Hide can hold the Kismet +ToHit piece. Invuln doesn't need much in the way of ToHit bonuses, until the fight is 1-on-1. I get a (perverse?) sense of satisfaction when playing the Manticore TF and it is my Tanker who is finishing off the Paragon Protectors in Moment-of-Glory mode.

I'm a little flummoxed by the @Azarichoice (in multiple powers) to +5 only three pieces of Unbreakable Guard and then go with a 4th generic IO of Resistance. Enhancement Diversification is absolutely putting a crimp on MOAR, in these cases Resistance.... Resistance has a low threshold for ED... MOAR Resistance is only fractionally reducing incoming damage, so I see a sort of double-whammy of highly marginal returns past the ED The 4th set bonus from Unbreakable Guard is right there for the taking The Reactive Defenses Scaling resistance piece is almost certainly doing more for the build's Resistance profile than any of those 4th Resistance IOs. I have a suspicion that the Tank build could be well served by having a Numina Health 50+5 paired up with the Numina %proc instead of the Miracle +Recovery. I certainly value Endurance management more than Regeneration, but the greater HP of Tankers is where I start to pay close attention to each. I think a slot can be saved from Invincibilty, while also improving the ToHit nature of the power. My own slotting is: (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (*) Shield Wall - Defense: Level 50+5 (*) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (*) HamiO:Cytoskeleton Exposure (Endurance/ ToHit/Defense): Level 53 (*) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up

I do believe it is possible that there are names on Homecoming that are "protected", and not by players. For example, there are names that you cannot give to henchmen/pets. There was one name I tried to get on day one of a character that I had on Live that I was rather surprised was not available, that included the word "Homecoming" in the name. It wasn't the most original name I admit, but all the variants I tried were unavailable. Since the project has the Homecoming name, I can easily believe that those names were reserved. It is of course possible I was slow, but on the server I play on I got all the other names of my favorite mains, even those I know I didn't have on all of the various "Live" servers.

I agree: They are well balanced, I suspect that some of the complaints are that Brutes are no longer "the best" at whatever. Let's face it: giving Tankers improved AoE was not "nerfing" Brutes. It is easier to get Brutes to a point where they hit this sort of balance earlier and/or with less effort, yet I don't question that there is some content where a "well-balanced" solo build will see certain levels of performance eclipsed by alternate options. Fury is a different sort of mechanic (and not one I have ever liked if I am being honest, *1) that probably could be re-jiggered but it has been such a long-standing part of the AT identity that I'm personally not sure what sort of change would make Brute advocates feel good. I can understand that because for so long in the game there could be a simplified analysis of MOAR FURY -> MOAR DAMAGE -> BEST DPS -> BEST REWARDS, such that as soon as some non-Brute is achieving "better DPS" or "Better Rewards" (by some arbitrary measure) I can understand some people feeling like Brutes having become a second class AT. It's not like a Defender, Controller or Kheldian is suddenly going to be earning "Better Rewards, Faster" than a Brute. *1 One of the things I never liked about Fury is the original "building and sustaining" aspect. I can see why farming (AFK or otherwise) leans toward Brutes, but for typical content this guy (points to self) solo or in teams I always found it to be one more thing to pay attention to on top of everything else happening on the map. I don't have alternate suggestions for it, I only mention my dislike of Fury because it's the number one reason why I have always eschewed Brutes.

Aside from getting some new Enhancement sets for Threat (especially with some Accuracy pieces, hmmkay?) there is one change I'd like to see made to the Presence pool versions of Pacify and Provoke: Many of my builds would deeply appreciate if the pool powers were altered as follows: Include a check against caster arch(etype) such that if the power is cast by an AT that would otherwise have access )generally) to a Placate or Taunt/Confront (Stalkers, VEATs, tankers, Scrappers, Brutes) that the Presence Pool version would basically become the "primary" version. I'm selfish: I have several characters of those ATs that want the Presence pool, but don't want to take an inferior version of a power they have access to in a Primary or Secondary. I don't think this request is unreasonable, as the Presence pool has a pretty high lift to get to Invoke Panic and/or Unrelenting and the first three powers (Pacify, Provoke, Intimidate) are each "orthogonal" in terms of utility... that is to say: if I have a character that can get use from Pacify, it is not typical that the same character can also get use out of Provoke or Intimidate.

I don't typically try to Solo the Penny Yin TF, but I did run some of my different non-brute ATs through it at +0x1, fighting only the necessary critters (when possible, see results). Stealth didn't really play into my runs, as I dashed past all critters I didn't need to fight. (Spines/Bio) Stalker: 11m 56sec. Got lucky with the Archon Ascendant, but did have to put down some shapeshifted Warwolves. I probably could have just used primary and secondary powers. (Inv/EM) Tanker: 12m 27sec. The Archon Ascendant took itself out of the fight, otherwise this might have been faster. The Stuns seamed to be pretty important, as was Taunt and Weaken Resolve. (SJ/WP) Scrapper: 12m 50sec. The Archon Ascendant took me out of the fight AND took itself out of the fight. Clamor was hurting this character. One of the final necessary defeats ran away so I feel like there was a smidge of bad luck here. (Mind/Poison) Controller: 15m 50 seconds. One death, one Shivan used for the AV fight. I hadn't made sure to have useful inspirations. This time is only within an order of magnitude of the others because of %damage... so let's not nerf %damage shall we. I did take a little extra time to defeat enemies before summoning Clamor, both to not have to worry about them and to get some extra insps. The Archon Ascendent was no problem 🙂 The times were short enough and there were so few defeats that nobody got a Catalyst, although the Scrapper got a PVP recipe. Each of these characters needed to go out on a run (they all had Wentworth day jobs), each was built in a way that some folks would call "expensive".

PUG = pick-up group I also see the green bar as something to spend. Only by going off of how important "softcapping defense" is to so many conversations, as well as "X is as survivable as Y", Any loss of green is seen as a bad thing. Recent Anecdote: I was in a PUG, I was playing a Blaster with somewhat mediocre defenses (but with a few OH #### options as well as scaling resistances on top of well-typed resistances for the content we were facing. I was drawing aggro in typical Blaster fashion, and one of the team healers made a reasonable complaint that they were struggling (and occasionally dying) "trying to keep me healed". I said thanks, but don't go out of the way to worry about me when my health bar is above 50%. The mezz protects? I LURV those, but I also have plans for mezz myself! Similarly, when I play a character with heals... I try to pay attention to which PUGmates need the healing/absorb/whatever. If I see a melee type above 50%, I don't sweat healing them unless they are in an obvious cascading failure mode. Tanks and Brute, it depends on the matchup of damage types with the powers in use. Masterminds, if I don't have an AoE heal you guys are on your own... keep the henchmen in Bodyguard mode!

I agree with this argument in theory, so has it been demonstrated that the same Yin TF takes a Brute 24 minutes longer to finish than a Tanker? Let's assume that they pick the same fights. Blasters can certainly finish a Yin arc in under 10 minutes, but that involves a specific sort of play choices. I wouldn't say a Tanker/Brute finishing a Yin arc in 34 minutes is a sign that those ATs are under-powered. For example: one HC change that was made that did not focus on Tankers/Brutes was the allowing of T7/T8/T9 powers to be taken earlier in a build than was the case on Live. Prior to this change, some of my characters were finishing arcs like Theoden's SSA1 in 7 minutes, but others would take 12+. Same player, same difficulty, similar approach to building and playing characters. Now that all the characters have earlier access to the T7/T8/T9s, I don't have any character that takes much more than 7 minutes to finish that arc, and the previous speedy ones did not have their times noticeably improved.

I like this as a sort of alternative path for Brutes, I can see that the sincere, reasonably well-considered suggestions doesn't make Brutes better at defeating more things faster, which is what I suspect most Brute advocates prefer. I (points to self) have this opinion, not about any single AT, based on nothing except watching PUGmates: I get the sense that many players don't see the Health bar as something they ever want to see reduce below full. With the typical defense/resistances of even semi-complete Brutes, I can see why this suggestion would be a non-starter.

Sounds hypothetical at this point. What content are you basing this set of arguments on?