Replacement

I would suggest ice melee/shield stalker. Ice patch, recharge debuffs, grant cover. Do it from strange positions (as a pseudopet summon, I'm guessing ice patch won't even break stealth). Naturally, you would grab leadership and maybe some other supportive stuff from pools.

Were you formerly on the private server, pre-HC? Is that the difference?

Well this is quiet... So I feel like posting here is breaking a ceasefire... But I would be interested in hearing what Captain Powerhouse thinks about the current direction. A mini dev manifesto of sorts. The intent seems to be to leave ST damage the same while raising aoe damage. Is this an accurate assessment of the intent? Is the current build succeeding at this? There's already been mention of the next build, so which changes aren't performing their intended function? Fyi, I'm still voting ship it, even though it's a slight ST damage nerf against non-purple enemies. Just add the caveat that another assessment will happen down the road (key word: assessment, since it doesn't lock you into further action).

Dominator: Domination is terrible. It's time we start discussing this. I'm not saying it's weak - it's just bad for the class. They took the one AT with more clicks than time to use them all, and then told them their objective best build is "always more recharge." Removing melee attacks isn't the answer: it's a frank discussion on Domination. Proposal: Empty out the bar on activation instead of when the buff wears off. This would let you begin to build towards your next usage, so the complete binary of permadom is broken (for the uninitiated: if you're even 1 second from permadom, the bar will empty out just before you activate, causing you to take the minutes to build the bar again). Stalker: if you're going pie in the sky... The biggest issue for me, with Stalkers, is simple Aesthetics. This one game that brags about its trillions of costume combinations went and made EVERY cloak move a toggle? Change hide as follows: Auto defense bonus Click instead of a toggle (with an easily perma-able duration/recast) Include aoe placate into it, entirely because AI limitations are hostile to mid fight stealth

@Bentley Berkeley I mean I don't disagree that 50% is laughably high but maybe it's time to relax with a cup of tea? I'd like to see them get some Tough levels of baseline Resists, but I've never played any of the EATs to a high enough level to be an authority on them. From my position in the backseat, though, I wonder if adding some more Regen into their kit wouldn't be better. A sort of Blaster sustain mindset.

I made a whole thread about this a few months back but the short version is: Please don't put Paladins at the center of your melee/support suggestions. And the 3 core reasons: Paladin is a build, not an AT; Empathy is too weird to be available to any melee as-is; and this isn't a medieval fantasy, so the build comes after the working AT. A lot of us have thematic characters waiting to be (re)made with something like this, and I can tell you I often go to build a Corruptor or Defender and lose interest on the pew-pew page. I think I'd make a fire/thermal on day 1.

One of their early Passives has the super reflexes trick, iirc, where they gain resistance as their health falls. I didn't see it in the power descriptions but discovered it by monitoring Resist. Not an overall disagreement that they need more, though.

We'll call it Leotoria.

I don't think you'll get this change without nerfs. Tbh, I'm guessing nerfs will eventually come to this power regardless, but yeah I wouldn't mind seeing it rebalanced more towards deactivating. I really only ever deactivate when I see my nuke is almost ready.

I will keep taking aim at this every time I see it proposed: This breaks more than it fixes. Corruptor with Assault sets - trying to actually play in the melee - creates really bad false choices. Like, petless mastermind bad. Assault/Empathy, for example, is asking for its own demise. Or Force Fields, for as long as it cannot self-buff. By extension, this affects the long-view of "how is Corruptor performing?" You cannot change Thermal Radiation just to accomadate the folks pairing it with Assaults -- that would make the Blastruptors overpowered. I understand resistance to adding new ATs, but I will always prefer a suggestion of a new AT over creating several noob traps. Corruptor playing Assault, but actually only playing gimp-blast (because they can't actually melee!), does not satisfy the fantasy that melee/support provides. I would also strongly caution everyone to stay away from assuming the worst in others, such as suggesting this is a roundabout way of getting some OP combo they secretly need to rule the universe. Suggesting people want a new AT because they have narcissistic needs for power-tripping creates unnecessary adversaries; Occam's Razor says they probably just don't feel they can do their character concept justice with the current ATs.

Remove Gender from performance shifter procs (It always says character grants an infusion with his Performance Shifter, or something) I should probably put that in a bug report.

Well yeah... EA has a cloak move regardless of AT, so it's an easy trade for Hide. I also want to double down on Regen resisting debuffs, and perhaps status effects as well (in addition to status protection). Unlike other sets that have 1-2 debuffs they thematically resist (like EA resisting end drain and defense debuffs, iirc), I think it makes sense for Regen to push through everything.

Also, this does make me kind of really want a Reanimation Armor Necromancy Manipulation set.

Oh in that case! We don't need to buff Regen. 😛 (I kid)

It really is all about Debt. Even knowing Debt doesn't actually matter, Debt is still a way for the game to tell you you soft-failed. If Debt was shifted entirely to "on-stand-up" (amount depending on revive method), you would see a lot more people embracing Vengeance, etc. A probably-easier way to program it at this point would be to have an active debt-subtraction component to certain powers, with Fire and Regen always removing one full death's worth (just use the same formula for calculating debt based on character level, multiply the value by -1). As for making zombie tactics Regen's thing... I'm ok with encouraging them to not feel bad when they fall down. But I would really rather see them get a bunch of debuff resist and an Absorb shield. We want to talk about how epic it is when Wolverine stands back up... but be careful about turning Regen characters into Worf (WARNING: THAT'S A TV TROPES LINK).

Was it this AT or are you talking about the name, Guardian? My understanding is the other one they were playing with (which is apparently a thing over on Rebirth now) is an Assault/armor/support AT (in roughly that order), and the OP's suggestion here simply uses the name Guardian. We definitely need a support/melee. We really do. But yeah, it would be a bad idea to call it Guardian at this point.

I was taking exception to this rolling generalization that a tank means the tanker AT, so "clearly the OP is wrong/stupid/lying," instead of the obvious and reasonable answer that they were dealing with Regen Brutes that were tanking. But I was being pretty weirdly aggro about the whole thing. While I do think Regen needs work, I agree that EM comes first (though it's looking like SS will cut to the front of the line).

I'm really coming around to the idea of just having these patch notes: Tankers were buffed And letting people decide if they feel stronger. Tell us what actually changed down the road.

It's not removed, strictly speaking. They pulled it off those powers so they could let the global proc work on them instead. It's like... Why paint your nails when we're about to give you a GUN ARM?!

Yeah, fast posts do come off as inflammatory, that's my bad. But I'm not wrong. Tanking is a role. Ask any MMO, even the ones who don't know what Corruptor or Controller mean. Step into any other thread on this site and this will be accepted, gospel fact: Brutes tank all the time. Don't be dense in just this one. Edit: lol at Fender. If you weren't busy using hyperpartisan rhetoric I seriously would have given your post kudos for that.

Ok first let's get this out of the way: Regen does suck and you all know it. If it's awesome in 3% of the game's scenarios and just frustrating the rest of the time, it's bad and needs fixed. Also QOL is not balance. Ok, now for the actual reason I'm here. Wrong-o. Tank != Tanker.

Errr, isn't that why we're on thread 3? We could have been happy with a minor shake up that occasionally has one AT eclipsing the (objectively strongest) AT in certain conditions and builds, it would have been fine... But the threads speak for themselves!

@Mr.Sinister Would you take a slight hit (say, 10-15%) to the numbers on damage enhancements themselves to get there? To go along with a large increase in +damage set bonuses, making it more of a build tradeoff? ... Because I totally would.

I would not call this healthy, though. -Regen isn't necessary for most of a hero's career, so Support sets can't be balanced around it. And then because of this, only very particular characters would make the cut any time it is required. This is different than "I make things dead" debuffs or "I keep my party alive" support sets. As for the validity of letting Bruising stack... When I read that paragraph, I could see it instantly: boards awash with the expectation of floored Resists, because everyone can do it, like capped defenses or perma-dom. But also, I had to smile when you said you didn't like it. Your parenthetic was very much required reading. I was really hoping this would be the direction everyone would get on board with and go visit Thomas the Tanker Engine ..

Agreed. This seems like a dimension of support that could really work... Without just stealing a Support's bacon. I have... A lot of words in this topic and none of it is really on-topic until that build is real. Short version: Bruising as -regen fixes a lot of stuff. Shoot, I love bulleted lists. I guess here I go: Removing unbalancable hyperniche (Individual sets either have it or don't. Doesn't occur often enough to balance around) Situational reasons to use your t1, even if you regularly have a better attack chain. More "good" party comps Adds a party scalar component to offset the loss of -resist. I want to emphasize where we currently stand on that last bullet point, though: People dreading the loss of Bruising are not liking the idea of losing something that multiplies party damage. I think this is a valid concern but I also feel the logic for removing needs laid out clearly: Increased base numbers and increased cap means the tankers' contribution to team damage is shifted to the benefits provided to the Tanker. This change makes it worth using +dmg and +recharge buffs on your tanker. Additionally, anything worth Bruising is something that is resisting Bruising.