csr

Let's see... Pendulum - Yes. Upped from 84.53 Live to 100.38 on Pineapple (per the character creation detailed info). It only has a 10 target cap (up from 5). Crowd Control - Yes. Upped from 71.63 Live to 85.55 on Pineapple.

I don't think they are. As the min-maxers would likely be arguing for the crashless Rage (some want the bugged, no -Def crash, stackable Rage back, but the devs clearly aren't listening to them). Double stacking Rage with the crash isn't really much of a bonus. Especially for Brutes. Even a solo Brute is often running at 350% Base damage with one stack of Rage. Let's say we have an Incarnate Brute that solos at 400% damage with a 60s double stack. So, he does 480% damage for 60s (half the time), 0 for 10s and then 400% for 50s. Net average 407%, up from the 400% from single stacked Rage and a 2% DPS buff at the cost of crash every 120s that hits Def/Res fairly hard. For a more pedestrian Tanker build such as my Ice/SS I have 48s stacked and run at around 280% with one stack. I gain 32% from the 40% up time double stack, and lose 23% to the crash for a 9% bonus off base and measly 3% buff to DPS for having that crash. The break even stack for such a Tanker on the DPS would be 35s. Anything less than that and my Tanker would actually be losing DPS by stacking Rage. Either version works for me, but I think a power called "Rage" should have a down-side (the primary definition is "violent uncontrollable anger"). Perhaps losing the crash should come with a rename. I also believe that having the choice, since it's a click, to avoid the crash if you want to means that the unstackable version's benefit is that people don't have to pay attention to when they click it, and nothing more. I'll take the more versatile version over the lazy version any time.

I made a new SS Brute today and tested at level 30 with sub perma Rage and was NOT getting the single stack crash.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing the cap go up to 20, or even 25. The only down side is for those off-tanks counting on only getting a 17-foe alpha (my DP/SR Sentinel, for example). However, it would hurt teams relying on control for their alpha mitigation.

I think the Sentinel version of EA would work better for Tankers and could be ported unchanged (the AT increases would happen automatically). I like the idea of Tankers and Brutes having slightly different versions to help restore more AT differentiation in a small way. I also think the Sentinel version of Regen would work better - but Instant Regeneration might well be OP'ed on a Tanker and the power order would need to be adjusted. Say, dropping IR to 7 and bumping Dismiss Pain, Integration and Resilience all up a spot. Come on Captain Powerhouse, these are both quick changes that could be put on test for a look see, right?

I'd love to see at least the Energy Melee changes included for Tankers and Brutes in this patch (since it is a Tank patch).

I hope we're going to get notes in powers that are excepted from this rule stating that it doesn't apply. The obscurity of figuring out what gets the buff and what doesn't is a bit troubling. I would also reword the "Most Tanker AoE powers now extend to inflict damage and other effects beyond their radius or arcs" to "Most Tanker AoE powers now have their arcs or radii extended by Gauntlet" or something to that effect.

Roughly the same amount against even level foes, the buff is more substantial against higher level foes as Bruise's effect is reduced by the Purple Patch. Also, the Bruise attack itself does more damage. And you can optimize your chain without Bruise. So, Tanker damage output on AoEs has been increased dramatically, sustained ST damage against higher level foes has been increased some and burst ST damage has also gone up a bit.

So, you meant "without stacking" rather than "while stacking" as I thought. Extending the duration doesn't have much value. If you don't have it perma, it does little. For Hasten users, I can see getting buff duration while Hasten is up, which then spans the gap to Hasten recharging, but that's about it and requires near perma anyway. So while it could smooth things for the few with it near perma and having Hasten, once you have it perma the only thing added Recharge would effectively do is increase your END use, as, since the buff would never expire anyway, the extension is irrelevant. Personally, I prefer what's on Pineapple. And I like what's on live about as much as this.

What does a "single buff [...] while stacking" mean? In the context of what others have been saying, that's a contradiction. The rest of what you say seems to imply you mean "without" stacking.

I agree with this. The one change that I would absolutely NOT want is Rage becoming Build Up. In fact, among the options discussed, I'd take what CP has on the table over the alternatives. I'd rather have more differences and more circumstances that can be leveraged (as stacked Rage and crash mitigation does), rather than more of the same.

The change isn't balanced, because it also doesn't hit Absorption, Regen or Healing. So some sets still do better than others. It is more balanced than it was though. For clarity on Defense being hurt worse. Let's say you have 50% Def (most build for a bit over the cap to deal with debuffs) and 20% Res. You take about 4% of all damage directed your way by even level foes with no Acc or ToHit bonuses (I've ignored streakbreaker for simplicity). A build with 100% Res and 10% Def takes the same 4% or so. With the old crash the first would take 16% and the latter 6%. A 300% increase compared to just 50%. With the new crash the Def build now takes 10% of incoming damage and the Res build 10%. Both seeing a 150% increase in damage taken. Just to throw out a less edge-case example, let's take a Brute with 50% Res and 25% Def. This Brute would currently go from 12.5% of incoming damage to 22.5%. With the change they'd go up to 24.5%. If the latter Brute were making up for taking 3 times the damage as the previous two with 3 times the Regen/Healing, then she'd actually still be better off, as her Regen/Healing would still be working at full strength. I use a mitigation index metric, which is basically just Regen divided by the percent of incoming that I calculated above. So if we have two whose Regen factor is 1 divided by 4% they have indices of 25. While this third example is at 24 because I stuck to round numbers (3 divided by 12.5%). The three with the old crash drop to 6.25, 16.7 and 13.3 respectively. Under the new crash the indices are 10, 10 and 12.2. Anyway, those are just three quick cases. The crash is more balanced. It could be more balanced still if there is some clever way to essentially debuff HP/Regen/Heal/Absorb all based upon current HP. But I think you'd end up having to debuff off base HP, which would require some balance tweaking to get the amount where you wanted it, and probably leave those with HP buffs ahead on points, so to speak.

I'm getting the same results. Rage always crashes, regardless of whether or not it's stacked.

Stacked Rage shows two overlapped Rage icons or one with the number '2' on it. When the first expires it drops to one, but you get an identical debuff icon for the crash. The latter needs new art work.

The Inherent Status Icon for Gauntlet blinks constantly. I assume this is a bug.

I was actually agreeing with you. The final comment was meant to be more general - it made no reference to damage at all, just high end performance. I should have made that more clear. What I meant is that the buffs to Tankers are seemingly targeted at a Brute's overall level of high end performance. And, IMO, the high end performance of Brutes is OP. Logically, if you accept the latter assertion, then you need to nerf Brutes high end somewhat (85% Res Cap, 700% Damage Cap, for example). And then target the overall high end performance of Tankers off that. Which would require a lower high end damage output, since they'll have significant survival advantages (at the high end now the HP difference and higher base Res/Def isn't particularly significant, even my moderate cost /Regen Brute build can tank anything at the high end). Personally, I agree with you in general that differences should be accentuated rather than buffed out; to give the maximum value to having choices. The problem Captain P has here is that there really isn't any head room to buff Tankers' ability to survive much, and the ability to generate aggro is only of so much value as long as there is a aggro cap of 17, so buffing damage seems necessary - if only for solo play. And balancing the SO level performance to the IO/Incarnate level is tricky. Brutes have it wrong. Specifically because their caps are too high. Tankers shouldn't get it wrong too by doing the same.

Damage potential off a given power's base (DS Multiplier times the Damage Cap)... Proposed Brute: 581.25% Melee, 581.25% Ranged/APP. Proposed Tanker: 570% Melee, 480% Ranged/APP. Scrapper: 562.5% Melee, 250% Ranged/APP. The reality is that instead of boosting every non-Brute AT's high end performance, Brutes top end simply needs to be lowered, and Tanker buffs should target that level, rather than the existing Brute level.

Regarding Rage stacking: I have two SS Tankers, one stacks for 48 seconds, the other for 46. And that's without any +Rech from the team. On a side note: Some here seem to think they're adding a crash. The crash is already there right now. What they added was a way to avoid it.

With Bone Smasher I get a bunch of spam, apparently one brilliant red message for each debuff applied to the target. The debuff effect also seems to apply if I've queued BS while Whirling Hands is animating.

I believe being able to skip Thorny Darts - or having it buffed - would mean that some of these other changes would need to be offset in some way. My choice would be to up Darts to a 4s recharge with the DS boost that goes with that, and then dial back the -Def in the set substantially. I honestly think the two secondary effects coupled with the new DPS buffs pushes this set to the border of OP even with the crummy Thorny Darts required.

So, there's a 4s difference of which 3s is interruptible and can be reduced with enhancements?

I'll second that on Voltaic Sentinel. As for Skewer, it has a base DPA of 92.5 DPS. Throw in the Toxic DoT and that goes up to around 108. It also does -20% Def on top of that. When the Recharge was at 8 seconds Skewer was simply too good for a T2. Now, IMO, it's still the best T2 in Dom secondaries, edging Smite. The only T2 outlier left is Stone Mallet (and that set has lots of buffs in this patch already), all the rest are now fairly comparable. Overall, the difference in powers in Thorns in this patch now makes it hard to choose what to skip. Thorny Darts is easily the worst power, but you can't skip it. Thorntrops and Thorn Burst are probably the next two weakest. Though I suspect Skewer will be skipped by many, despite it being quite good.

Thanks for the clarification and information. Invisibility needs better tuning in both PvE and PvP. Though perhaps the latter should be part of a more general reworking of PER v STEALTH in PvP. As an aside you can add Focus, Shockwave, Savage Leap and APP ranged attacks (I believe every set has at least 2) to the list of those that Stalkers can use to strike without warning. Contollers can get some +PER from Mace Mastery or the Fortunata Seer in Soul Mastery. Dominators only get the latter. Corruptors get the former. Stalkers can get +PER through Body Mastery or Weapons Mastery. Tankers through Energy Mastery or Mace Mastery.

I thought there was a base 500' PER range for players. Your calculation assume 0 base PER for characters. That can't be right, can it?

Well, it's certainly not the first time the consensus is wrong. 😄