SeraphimKensai

The new SJ double jump has made steam jump and the jump pack kinda redundant. That said I'm alright with an only affecting self toggle that doesn't detoggle after 30 seconds. It would have to be exclusive with Double Jump, as they are now all three share a CD.

Before making this thread I had been playing a lot of my spines/bio Brute, but since this thread I rolled up a Dark/Thorn Domi. Thorny Assault is very similar to Spines, with slight modifications like thorntrops instead of quills. The pool has a superior and extreme damage attack. And instead of the recharge slow on each of spines attacks there's significant defense debuff. The set still suffers from redraw issues. But that -defense secondary effect is just sexy. Spines gets the short end on secondary.

Sounds cool.

They do it in Eve but your logo has to get approved so it's not just a dick and ballsack or such.

I have an incarnate/Io'd Demon/ElecA MM that is an absolute beast. When I use it, I am tanking, taking alphas, able to keep my demons/myself and even teammates if i have those up with EA buffs. It works really well,

OMG yes. Why didn't I think of it before, turn Spines' Build Up into Plant Manipulation's Toxins. Let's add extra toxic damage to all the attacks.

Alright as a tanker your resistance hard cap ie 90% which you share with Brutes (Heats/Veats have 85%, and everyone else has 75%). Defense wise you can achieve the same softcap as everyone else for non incarnate content at 45%. Note I used the phrases hard cap and softcap. Hard cap references resistance as you can build to the cap, but any extra is useless. Softcap references defense, and you can build over cap although only enough to make it 45% is used in non-incarnate content, the excess is used in the event you are debuffed. Resistance is all types, defense is either typed or positional, or sometimes targets all. Stone Armor as you are experiencing is already pretty survivable out of the box because of Granite. You can use an aegis proc or imperium among set bonuses to increase your psi resistance or you can chase defense if you feel you need it. Mathematically resistance and defense are similar if you think that 2% resistance equals 1% defense, so keeping in mind our hard cap and softcap you can build towards whatever will get you closer to the respective cap. And yes having some defense and some resistance essentially stack so having 45% defense blocks typically 90% of even con attacks. The 10% that get through then encounter your resistance, so that number can be reduced based on your resistance values. It's worth noting that higher conned npcs will overcome defense easier, so there's an incarnate softcap of ~53.5% if I recall correctly that shields you in incarnate content. Otherwise there's mobs that debuff defense and resistance out there too. Another layer to your survivability is your Regen, and rankers have a high hp cap that you can build towards with +HP and trying to make Earth's Embrace Perma, along with getting state boosting accolades. You can further enhance your mitigation via your attacks and aura like mud pots which you can slot a chance for do knockdown in, and it already slows the targets attack rate. Otherwise you can always go for darkest night in your epp/app choice but it's likely overkill.

Ah I thought I was picking up sarcasm. Personally I think all the old school sets should get a once over or so for some modernization, some definitely need it more than others, but I've been playing spines lately so thought it would be a good opportunity to bring up spines for the time being.

@RMS33I thought about the idea of changing damage types via a swap ammo sorts of configuration and settled for being able to change the green toxic vfx to different colors or off. Spines already has a limited toxic DoT component. In my suggestions I proposed increasing the length of it to allow it to be more beneficial over a heightened period of application as opposed to introducing more burst damage. I think spines'burst damage is lower than other sets because of how spines has some decent options for AoE and it's limited DoT. But yes if there was a button you could press to make your spines switch from toxic to fire, or cold, or electric, or whatnot that would be cool albeit at probably more effort.

I agree, giving people options how their powers work allows for so much more storytelling, role playing, or just overall creativity.

Looks like hammered vg10 on the cleaver. I'm all for a knife reaction as I make knives, swords, axes and whatnot for my job.

Nice sarcasm @Haijinxbut that's why I was trying to keep my suggestions in check to not really benefit farming much. Adding No Redraw options helps everyone have smoother attack chains and the dev team seems to be going that way almost unilaterally across the board with powerset that have drawing issues. Being able to change the green toxic vfx is cosmetic and helps people role playing. Increasing the DoT time on the toxic on the attacks technically helps everyone but it's not really adding upfront burst damage so it's not going to really benefit farmers much as farms already kill mobs really quick. I figured it's more beneficial towards players running missions where a mob might run off or phase or bubble, etc. My suggestion for impale really doesn't benefit a farmer as a farmer is going to be inconstant combat so they wouldn't really get bonus snipe damage. @aetherealI honestly wouldn't mind spine burst's animation being quicker myself but I figured that might of been too much to ask for. @Galaxy Brain @MTeague Spines has always been one of my favorite sets; I think for me the most appealing thing with Spines as always been having a nice mix of melee/ranged/AoE. The ranged is really unique on an otherwise melee centric set but it just works. Sure it doesn't have the burst of say energy melee and I get that, just trying to think up ways to lean it's the set's more unique function. Adjusting impale to function like a snipe/quick snipe might be the best of both worlds gets a stronger open ona. Single Target via snipe, but a fast cast version to help with the long windup of it's animation in combat. GB I know you're usually on point with numbers, the DoT for spines as always felt underwhelming. I am sitting on the beach drinking a beer at the moment so I don't have my PC handy but I wonder how spines' DoT compares to Fire's DoT? Or maybe the toxic dot could be changed to do something else like debuff Regen or HP? Maybe that's too much but would be a unique secondary effect for a melee set.

You can make a standard arachanos uniform then change the colors of various costume pieces you want via sg mode colors. I just did the impossible, 2 arachanos costumes.

The whole shtick of a Brute is Fury. Brutes are meaty behemoths that can take and lay out a pounding. First off they should get a slight increase to melee damage modifiers. Perhaps an idea to build up on Fury is when fury builds up damage, but add an effect when it gets to say 90+% you can activate a clicky that gives you "Rampage Mode" 30 seconds of Damage Cap for all your attacks, at the expense of negatively impacting defense/resistance/Regen for that time. Basically putting all your efforts into your attack as opposed to showing restraint.

Spines is a pretty unique powerset when you break it down but it has a a few issues. 1. It has to suffer redraw on every attack. 2. It has a relatively low DPA damage, this is because it has no superior or extreme damage attacks. 3. It's secondary effect does too little for too short of a period. I'm hesitant to suggest any changes due to how many people use these in farming, so I'm going to attempt to list a couple suggestions aimed at non-farm related improvements but there will likely be some carryover. Suggestions for Consideration: 1. Introduce a no redraw option, this will help on animation times by elimination of extra time for redraw when you use a pool power or such. 2. Spines deals the bulk of it's damage via lethal, which as everyone knows is heavily resisted. Therefore increasing the duration of spine toxicity x3 could be interesting as it would make the secondary effect a lot longer lasting than currently but the DoT is minor so it wouldn't be overall too overpowered (but useful for mobs like Fake Nemesis, Paragon Protectors, or phasing mobs like Illusionists when those mobs are near death. 3. Kind of a stretch change, but... Reverting Impaler's range nerf and then turning it into a snipe/fast snipe so it does bonus damage out of combat would be an interesting case study leaning into the ranged aspect of Spines making it more unique. 4. This one is a bonus one but merely cosmetic, but changing the power animations to color change the green toxic in the costume creator so you could have it be any color you want. I figured if we're implementing a no redraw option then this is just sitting next to it ready to be worked on. Overall I think these changes would reasonably help Spines Melee users while having a minimal amount of positive net change for farmers. I'm open to suggestions or further discourse as well. As always thanks and best wishes.

It likely won't happen because vet levels have gone up to 4 digits on some people's mains and there's no way you'd fit 4 digits in the spot in the main UI.

I typically have very either very fluid or complex rotations that don't have room for brawl. The only time in my opinion that brawl was useful is when it had a 33% chance at knocking a toggle off of a target. It was pretty useful in PvP in that regard especially if you knocked off someone's mez protection. That all said, I don't see a need to change brawl.

I can solo just fine with any blaster I suppose, most often at +4/8 (including one I occasionally use for fire farming). I have 10 of them currently. The caveat is that I IO out all my toons.

Black Scorpion's defeat all mission for the patron unlock arc.

Grandmaster should require +4x8, no deaths, no temp powers, no incarnate powers, and no IO set bonuses. Yeah I said it, why not make it hard.

That was like the other day with SafeMoon. 1 guy sold ~$10 million worth of coins, and that didn't even come close to closing out his wallet, and I'm like I'll double my holdings with another $500.00. In CoH we just gotta keep grinding, and the 500 mil influence Yomo just sent me will be getting back to him on the market as I outfit a new ice/fire blaster. Making a build in ~10 minutes saved me several hours of grinding. Thanks again the contest was fun even though I wasn't the winner.

There's always whales in every market. I'm just a guppie in the sea.

As much as I wanna say winning lots of costume contests :), that volume of influence comes from playing the Auction House game. Once you get a few good niches, you're able to make a lot of influence there. It just takes some time to get good as it.

Congrats @Icono04. dark/atomic works well and has a lot of mitigation, I have one named Negate on Everlasting.

As I've been fixing CA on a lot of toons, I fully concur. A /saveca and /loadca would be amazing.