LightMaster

CoX Homecoming does have a share of issues, i.e. Defender’s Inherent being too reactive on a team wheras other ATs’ Inherents are usually active or all-time, but adding variables on top of existing variables (magnitude randomness on top of ToHit in this case) will create more problems than it solves. You know what variables that helped increase replayability of at least some missions arcs and Task / Strike Forces and helped players to improvise as needed? What type of critter thay spawns within an enemy group, encouraging not mindlessly speeding through lest a random Sapper saps our Endurance, for example. This is where you’d want to Mez high-priority targets like a Sapper before they can do something devastating, allowing damage-oriented ATs like Blasters to finish them off. Likewise, an enemy capable of mezzing, like a Mage / Master of Ruin of Circle of Thorns, should be taken care off ASAP. It’s no Director system of Left 4 Dead games, but the variable on critter spawns alone can cause your team to slow down and analyze for a second before attacking a group, and for your Controller / Dominator valuable to Mez out high-priority targets. Being a low-DPS toon on top of the low-tier mezzes not working on specific types of enemies is part of why the Dominator ends up being “the cooler Control AT” in multiple ways. While a Controller can provide buffs and / or debuffs and have a controllable pet for more strategic uses, the Dominator ends up being better in many scenarios, with Perma-Dom being consistent, and that includes DPS to allow Dominator to either defend itself, finish the job quickly, or take on a mez-resistant enemy like a War Wolf head-on. It’s say something that Illusion Control is often iconic with Controller due to high-damage powers compared to other sets and Phantom Army alone helping out with DPS (and the whole set can out-tanking a freaking Tanker but that’s not easy to do).

There’s definitely some redefinitions needed regarding this rule so that there is clearly a thin line not to cross, given that both definitions can be stretched too far. Politics should be about what is defined as true politics (i.e. governments, president of USA, dictatorship, voting processes, protests, etc), and not based solely on others’ identity. Religions should be defined as religions that are still active today such Christianism and Buddhism, while ancient religions and ancient traditions such as mythological deities are fine to discuss as long as it doesn’t get aggressive and mean-spirited. I call foul when people says “everything is political” where the definition is just that; “relating to the government or the public affairs of a country” (Oxford Dictionary), and going beyond the definition can undermine any message or intent the author have for their artistic product.

Even with the spaghetti code in mind, I’m surprised the Minimal or No FX were implemented given it’s proven to be possible with whole Armor power sets. It’ll be especially helpful turning off effects that you would find garish on your character.

The Energy Focus for Energy Torrent to hit more targets, I can get behind! This makes Energy Torrent more inticing to use and puts it more in-line with the Energy Mastery versions, too, since those usually do not scatter mobs thanks to already having Knockdown instead of Knockback. Also thanks for pointing out abotu Power Crash’s increased target cap in Energy Focus.

Other than Sniper Blast having massive KB being overkill and grief-inviting given it’s main purposes are snipe and rotation Extreme Energy/Smashing damage, the rest sounds good to me. Power Push in particular may invite players that aren’t Sentinel to try it beyond just pushing an overly aggressive foe away.

You’re right, my bad, lost in the track with this thread. Back into the subject, I’d agree with pseudo-pets replaced by toggles if it means increased effectiveness and not dealing with long recharge time, but true pets can stay.

Not helping is their tendency to expire (automatic 0 HP + die) after minutes passed, so you have to re-summon them, especially with the long recharge time for those Pet summoning powers like Dark Servant.

I hear at least more than a few people saying about Energy Blast being a weak power set, as well as annoying for teammates if used recklessly. While I have met a player whose NRG/NRG Blaster outshining their own Fire/Fire Blaster, the general concensus that I can gather doesn’t change. Knockback means you have to be strategic with using your powers, and not spam them liberally. For Nova, slap a KB > KD and you’re good to go. A Homecoming Issue (update) grants the Dominator’s Energy Assault that uses the Energy Storing / Energy Focus gimmick akin to Energy Melee, but with different powers having different benefits unlike the latter. Both sets’ Energy Focus is never granted through Build Up powers, so it’ll be kept in mind for Energy Blast. Energy Melee’s Energy Focus Only granted through Total Focus. Barrage: Weaken the foe’s regeneration and secondary effects, and 100% stun rate. Power Crash: Hit five additional foes (six for Tankers, thanks Uun) in a cone. Energy Transfer: Executes extremely quickly. Energy Assault’s Energy Focus In addition of Total Focus always granting Energy Focus, the four powers have a chance of granting it if used against a Disoriented target. Bone Crusher: Reduces the foe’s secondary effects. Whirling Hands: Recharges instantly. Power Burst: Increase base damage from 2.6 Energy/Smashing to 4.29 Energy/Smashing, higher than all other damaging Powers of Energy Assault except a Snipe cast Sniper Blast. Example of Energy Blast’s Energy Focus The first four powers have a small chance of granting Energy Focus if used against a foe that resists Knockback (or the replacing status). Explosive Blast always grant Energy Focus. Alternatively, Power Push always activate Energy Focus and Explosive Blast has a chance of per target. (Suggested by Uun) Power Bolt (or Power Blast depending on which if the two is far less picked): Reduce the foe’s secondary effects and regeneration. Power Push: Damage increased at 3.75 Energy/Smashing (or 4.15 Energy/Smashing if used by Sentinel, given the latter’s Power Push already deals pretty good damage) Nova: Greatly reduces the foes’ Resist(All) and Defense(All) for ten seconds. The resist and defense reducement depends on the Archetype: Defender: Highest reducement on foes. Corruptor: Second highest. Sentinel: Slightly below Corruptor’s; can stack with Vulnerability. Blaster: Lowest, but still noticable. Suggested by Steampunkette: Energy Torrent increases to 16 targets. (Mirroring Power Crash's target count increase) Sniper Blast becomes a massive KB power. (Mirroring Barrage's high Stun) [This one I don’t agree much but might see potential to push away a knockback-resistant foe off you.] Power Blast becomes the "Deals double damage" power. [Might overlap with my idea for Power Push unless thiat power becomes the “always activate Energy Focus” one.] These three / four powers can benefit a temporary but powerful buff that can help turn the tide while being distinguished from both Energy Melee and Energy Assault. Do you have other ideas how to improve the power set other than resolving the excessive knockback?

The debuff resistance may end up outdoing Tanker in survivability and overshadowing Scrapper in damage due to the risk of resisting -DMG and -Res/-Def too much, even if those situations are rare. Fury granting a mobility buff, though, sounds pretty good to make Fury more enticing to keep it high than just more damage and get in-and-out of battle fast. I agree with the rest though. 0.8 armor modifier in particular would make it a more solid middleground between Tanks and Scrap/Stalk than already is before.

The numbers could be slightly lower than Corruptor’s debuffing numbers, have slightly shorter time but can stack per-hit, given that the Brute will attack in melee-range and have much higher tankiness than actual buff/debuff ATs. Going back to your example, Shadow Punch will have around 4.125% -ToHit for 4 seconds, but can stack with itself and with the Brute’s Dark Melee powers’ -ToHit chance. Keep in mind it requires the Brute to get up close to the enemies, making for a risky but rewarding maneuver. And that’s without saying about the AV’s Purple Patch. In a sense, the Brute can become a melee-oriented debuffer that can become more desirable on a team than before, with a niche that no other Melee ATs has, all while remaining solo-friendly with high damage and survivability combined vs other ATs.

Ooh definitely, I remembered that. In fact, the practice shows the direct counterparts among CoH and CoV Archetypes: Scrapper and Stalker: Melee Glass Cannons, with Scrappers being more straightforward while Stalker have built-in stealth for their Armor. Tanker and Brute: Tanky Melees, with Tanker being more durable / dodgy while Brutes are more damage-oriented. Defender and Corruptor: Buff/Debuff ATs, with Defender having stronger buffs/debuffs while Corruptor focus more on damage. Controller and Dominator: Crowd Control-oriented ATs, with Controller having stronger controls (at least in theory) while Dominator have higher damage scalar (not by much back then, but definitely higher nowadays to be much less overrelient on Domination) HEATs and VEATs: Team oriented versatile ATs, with Kheldians having changeling ability to change role on the spot depending in situation and team composition, while the Soldiers of Arachnos have a limited career selection but have very good individual powers and support, especially Toxic Web Grenade. Blaster and Mastermind: The odd-ones-out, with Blaster having emphasis on damage more than every other ATs, while Mastermind orients around commanding many pets and are stronger when a teammate MM is involved. Sentinel was made way after the CoH and CoV merge thus no direct counterpart. The villain side has more emphasis on damage (single target damage in Stalker’s case), barring Mastermind which that is their own thing. It worked in favor of Stalker, Dominator, the VEATs and especially the Corruptor… not so much the Brute nowadays.

I’ve once posted solutions for Brute some months ago with mixed receptions, and I got more experience with CoX since then. As many complained about Brute being overshadowed by other Melee ATs, there is something to remember about the AT prior to Issue 28; Tanker ended up being overshadowed by Brute as the Tanker deals too little damage to be appealing. Back when CoH and CoV were seperate, this is not an issue, but once the games and servers merged, it’s clear that neither were future-proofed. At this day, the Tanker became more fun to use; damage scalar moderately increased to be able to deal damage especially through their AoE attacks, but still below even the Brute’s maximum damage capability overall. Back to the Brute… We as a community is reaching a point where we ended up becoming too conflicted and close-minded on how to buff the Brute without stepping over the line of other Melee ATs despite their lack of true specialty. Even the Sentinel, which isn’t a high tier AT by any mean as a “ranged Scrapper”, is still specialized enough to be capable of turning the tide when all else fails and do what other ATs cannot do better in every way, including their very valuable Inherent, Vulnerability, which benefits the Sentinel and all other ATs. The Brute’s ATO procs are their own issues that will be addressed seperately, right now I shall focus on the Brute’s two advantages that are best keep that way (and maybe even build upon), and two fondamental issues that need to be addressed. Do note that the goal isn’t necessarily making Brutes viable for 4-stat contents, given most team runs the rigid but effective team composition of One Tank-Two Blasters-Five Corruptors - sometimes four and a Defender, but rather give the Brute something other Melee ATs cannot do so easily. Advantage 1: Ease of use and solo-friendliness The Brute is one of the ATs with the most created toons, and for good reasons that’ll be explained below. And for the same reasons, it is also one of, if not the most consistently great AT to go for when solo’ing, be it farming or simply playing through missions, especially at +4/8 difficulty. With that in mind, not much responsibility is required for the Brute on a team if there is a Tanker around. This allows the Brute to do whatever the heck they want as long they directly contribute to the team, be it defeating foes or completing objectives. As an off-tank, they do a pretty good job, even if not strictly all that tankier than Scrapper in mathematical terms. Advantage 2: A solid middleground of Scrapper and Tanker An important factor of the Brute’s popularity is a good balance between damage and tankiness. If one wants to be tanky but found Tankers hit like wet noodles, or wants high damage melee-only AT but found Scrapper or Stalker too fragile, then they will find the Brute very appealing, especially for solo plays. In other words, simple premise, but effective at it. “Unga bunga” all the way! Disadventage 1: Lack of true specialization Among the Melee ATs, the Brute is a master of none. Scrapper and Stalker outdo it in overall damage, while the Tanker obviously out-tanks it. The only thing going for it is higher ranged damage, and even then you have to rely on Temporary Power and Epic Pools to do that. Not helping is that putting ranged powers as alternative/mutually exclusives in Brute’s primary may be stepping over Sentinel, even if the latter can only use it’s Melee scalar for Boxing or at most two Melee powers in Epic Pools. Brute may be much tankier than Blaster and Dominator, the two true Melee+Ranged hybrid ATs, but the latter two don’t need extra survivability anyways, especially on a team. Disadventage 2: Fury is boring (even if effective) As an Inherent, Fury does it’s job pretty well; encourage the Brute to keep fighting and taking hits for Bonus Damage, allowing the Brute to eventually reaches higher damage potential than the Tanker. However, aside of being bugged (not reaching higher than 85%), it doesn’t do anything else important for itself or it’s team. What’s more is that the residential True DPS Archetype, Blaster, has an Inherent called Defiance that not only grants some Damage Bonus when using it’s primary or secondary, but even allows it to attack with level 1 powers when mezzed. Defiance used to be different in which way I do not know, but now Fury feels redundant in that department. What can be done, then? Turns out, none of the Melees have buff/debuff as their main style, and the Stalker can inflict Terrorize via stealthed Assassination, so a possible solution is to allow the Brute to have stronger debuff (and only Debuff!) potential, making it more akin to Sentinel’s Vulnerability and the ATs that has access to Buff/Debuff sets and thus more appealing to a team. Solution to Disadventage 1: Melee-oriented Debuffs Lore-wise and logically, there is no doubt that a brutal punch from a Brute will leave bigger marks and more broken bones than a precise strike from a Scrapper or Stalker, as the latters’ strike are not necessarily more pain-inducing. As such, a Brute can shatter an armor or split apart a forcefield with their bare hands or their heavy and powerful weapon. -Res might be a no-no because it can result in Brute dealing more damage than Scrapper/Stalker, granted -Res is a team-wide benefit anyways, but -Def, -ToHit, -Rech, -Regen, -Recovery and other non-mezzing debuffs will be very much more severe if used by a Brute than other melee-only Archetypes through stacking, but those debuffs will be slightly weaker and shorter meaning the Brute must keep hitting them to stay true with their playstyle. The Brute’s Melee sets will be able to inflict a variety of debuffs as a result, making some more appealing than on other ATs. Take Kinetic Melee, for example. It’s only known unique aspect is -DMG on foe with a Quick Strike, and that’s it. Any Knockup/back/down are already done by other Melee sets and those have another thing going for them. Now with a Brute, the -DMG is near-universal when using Kinetic Melee, each having small but stackable -DMG on a foe making a Brute a monster in a 1v1 fight, whereas the Tanker can take multiple enemies at once but not necessarily a super-powerful AV without the help of a Defender, Controller or Corruptor. Melee sets that don’t inflict a debuff when used by a Brute can inflict one depending on the theme. This means when used by a Brute, a Energy Melee can potentially inflicts -ToHit / -Rech, Fiery Melee inflicting -Regen (mimicking the Fire DoT of Fire Blast!), Ice Melee having more severe Slow and -Rech, Stone Melee inflicting -Recovery, etc. Solution to Disadventage 2: Fury now also provides +ToHit Pretty simple to keep Fury simple to use and easy to understand. Thusly Brute players now don’t need to slot some Accuracy Enhancements SOs / IOs until they can afford sets, and makes it even friendlier for +4/8 soloing. To counterbalance this, the Brute has a small ToHit penalty if Fury is empty and then if the Brute wasn’t in combat for more than ten seconds. What do you think of the solutions? Do you have any other solution you have in mind?

Sounds like a good idea. We don’t need Tyrant pull a heel-face turn given everything wrong he has done and his illusional ambitions, but instead an attempt that may seem he turned into a new leaf, but turned out to be another of his power-hungry conquest, even if he’a not as big of a threat as he was before. Maybe he’ll pull a sincere one down the line, but not at the point where Praetorian Hamidon and eventually the Battalion (ya know, the planned Coming Storm?) are among to worry about. Oh yeah, no doubt that the Crey Corp. will try their hands on making their own Statesman that may or may not go rogue. I met at least one toon based on the concept of a Statesman / Stateswoman made by Cray Corp.

Wouldn’t that be redundant with the Blaster Archetype? The thing about the Blaster is that it specializes in DPS more than any other ATs, including the Melee oriented ATs, by sacrifying survivability for Holds, Self-Substain (for self End management), miscelleanous stuff but especially Melee powers. The Melee powers within their Secondary alone, alongside the Self-Substain, is what allows the Blaster to go full-on DPS and bravely take on the foes heads-on. The Blaster’s Melee powers aren’t as powerful as Scrapper’s or Stalker’s Melee powers as the latter two can Crits for double damage. And the Dominator, the other non-Epic AT capable of both ranged and melee through their Assault secondaries, have a slightly higher Melee scalar than Blaster. That said, the Blaster does have Defiance for small Damage Bonus and capable of shooting down distant or fleeing foes. Not to mention that obviously the Blaster has the second highest Ranged scalar behind the Bright/Dark Nova forms. Not all Blaster Secondaries have Melee powers of course, with Archery being purely ranged, but it is still an important aspect about the Blaster to keep in mind. And of course there is the Blapper style, a Blaster that mostly or only uses their Secondary to focus on the Melee powers, is popular for a reason. While not perfectly viable for 4-Star contents afaik, it is an alternative playstyle few complained about as it not only gives an exhilerating playstyle that not even the real Melee ATs has, but it proved to be pretty good in their own right, especially if the Blapper doesn’t completely neglect their primary. tl;dr Blaster is and should remain top DPS, Blapper exists, is fun, and works remarkably well, so an AT with Melee primary and “Ranged + Hold + Self-Substain” secondary might be redundant.

While the two sides has good arguments, one keep moving goal posts for opposing arguments while another comes off as constantly naysaying despite that the negatives are very real. If you assumed bad faith and resorted to sarcasm and namecallings instead of providing actual strong points, I do not think those who haven’t picked any side and only listening are getting much less endeared to join either side of the argument. I argue the real issue is the misuse of AI by corporates and common people by investing the more mundane or even unhelpful aspects of it, and using the word as an incessant buzzword without getting people to know what kind of AI is even about, as well as overexposure and overly pushy promotion of Generative AI.