Saikochoro

Thank you for providing the actual reasoning behind the rune of protection nerf. I appreciate the answer even though I wholly disagree with the answer. I also want to echo the question: why even include this nerf in a testing/feedback phase? Based on your answers, it very much seems you had no intention on going back on the decision as you are of the opinion that rune was overpowered. It is completely fine to nerf something and have no intention of going back on the decision based on feedback. It’s your game. However, it would have just been better to include it separately and state clearly that it was being adjusted because the dev team felt it was overpowered and that the decision is final. You still would have gotten backlash, but at least it would reflect the apparent decision making behind it. Now that we know the answer, it might be best to indicate in the feedback threads (if you haven’t already) that the rune change is closed to feedback/discussion.

I’ve never watched people play video games. Never really had any interest in doing so. I did however discover Critical Role a couple months ago and have been watching that. Despite being into fantasy and sci-fi my whole life I never explored Dungeons & Dragons. This show however is amazing and makes me really interested in the age old RPG. Best way I can describe it like watching an audio book.

The first season of SG-1 is pretty rough, but it became one of my all time favorite shows. I’m not really sure I can pinpoint when it exactly it went from meh to mildly interesting to good to great to “it’s 1am and I have work in the morning, but one more episode shouldn’t hurt”. The show grew on me as did the characters. I think both Atlantis and Universe had better starts. I think a big part of that is that they had already found their groove and had established characters/plot elements to give them strength.

You could go further than just low value added and say negative value picks as there are a few that are just delayed suicide buttons.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Just quoted for emphasis.

I would suggest using savage melee or war mace as the primary and either bio armor or energy aura as the secondary. Savage melee has good single target and great AoE damage (proc out savage leap). It is fast and provides some nice recharge bonus/end discount as you maintain stacks of blood lust. War mace is just a very strong performer all round. Bio armor is not the toughest set, but it has nice layered mitigation that when built to its strengths works really well. Just don’t try to softcap all types as that will neuter your damage potential. Speaking of damage potential, bio provides a nice boost to damage. Energy aura is easy to softcap typed defenses, has some decent resist potential, resolves any endurance’s woes as soon as you get energize, and provides + recharge to boot. Overall I think you should go savage/bio and build to bios strengths. Then just laugh as you leap nuke spawns and finish of bosses with a very fast single target rotation. It’s very satisfying. My second suggestion is war mace/energy aura. Strong and pretty is not just a meme, it is actually a monster of a combo.

EM performs better than before. It is a fact. Not liking the combo mechanic is understandable though. Not everyone will like every change. Tankers are not even close to being irrelevant. They received some fairly significant offensive buffs that have really closed the gap between them and brutes in AoE damage. Brutes still have the edge in single target, but tankers can be built tougher much easier allowing them to focus on things like recharge and procs. Honestly, tankers have never been better in my opinion than they are now. Same with energy melee.

What I would like most is a horde survival mode. Have an instanced horde survival mode with various special maps. Start of with low number of low power enemies. Increase difficulty of the attacking horde with each wave. Conceivably end with lots of AVs throwing out high damage and large debuffs. Given that that is unlikely to happen I’d be happy with more task forces and trials.

No problem. It’s fun seeing the crazy numbers you can get on tankers. I actually had never played them on live and have always had a damage oriented focus even on the tankers I have made this far. But I then I starting thinking about pushing the survivability on my tankers to really make them earn their name. Plus, I liked my concept for the inv/dark melee tanker being the personification of dark insatiable magic incased in the hard steel of a blade. After I finished the costume in the character creator I knew I was going to like the inv/dm.

I know this thread is a little old, but figured I'd reply to throw my vote in for Dark Blast/Invulnerability. I recently made a sentinel with this combo and I am really enjoying it. Heres my build: -Softcapped defenses -Capped s/l resists, decent f/c, moderate e/n/t. Does have a psi hole, but I'm not too worried about it. -Darks -to-hit pairs nicely with invuln and I take life drain to cover some healing. -Not nearly as damaging as my fire/bio sent, but not horrible either. Much tankier though. Snapshot of totals:

I will share 3 builds with you. One is my Craven Edge Inv/DM build. The other two are actually Shield/DM builds. I know you weren't asking about shield, but your question about inv/dm being the tankiest thing besides granite made me think what I could do if I shifted the focus of my dm/shield build. The reason I am sharing those is because I wanted to see the toughness of shield compared to Inv. Craven Edge: Inv/DM: -Over soft-cap typed defense when Invicibility if fully saturated (being a tanker I expect to be saturated most of the time). -Great resists including respectable toxic/psi resists. -Capped HP. -Not the highest damage tanker around due to lower recharge, but pretty much unkillable Snapshot of totals (note invincibility is saturated for these totals). Also includes 1 stack of ATO. Shield/DM damage focus (the build I actually use): -Softcapped positional defense (covers psi as long as it is not non-vectored). -Good resists that are supplemented with rune of protection 50% uptime leading to almost capped resists across the board with 2 ATO stacks. -Decent offensive focus with extra procs in main attacks and respectable recharge. -I still rate this as nigh unkillable. Snapshot of totals not including rune (just add 30% to resists to see where they end up with rune active). Includes 1 stack of ATO. Shield/DM: Defensive focus (theory build to compare to inv). -Over softcapped positional defenses. -Great resists. Did not grab rune to supplement, but rather increased baseline resists. -Lower damage due to less procs and quite a bit less recharge. Still between soul drain & AAO this still should do good damage. -Really was just a test to see how it compares baseline to Inv with grabbing rune. Snapshot of totals with 1 stack of ATO.

I recently made a DM/INV tanker. It was inspired by the show Critical Role, which I recently discovered. I created this tanker to be what I imagine to be the manifestation of the greatsword Craven Edge. It is pretty beastly. I decided to go full tanker on this one and therefore didn’t put two procs in attacks or chase extreme recharge for example. I don’t have my build in front of me, but I was able to get my psi resist to a respectable level. It has no other weaknesses. Dark melee fills in the healing gap and provide some extra endurance tools as well. The to-hit debuffs stack nicely with invulnerabilities defense. Soul drain also covers the lack of offensive bonuses in invulnerability. A fully saturated soul drain powered shadow maul on a mob is very satisfying. It almost funny that the enemy mobs think they have a chance against my tanker.

My vote would be dual blades/energy scrapper. This is probably my favorite combo after dark melee/shield defense. Energy aura has all the bases covered as far as survivability goes and has endurance management and offensive bonus (+rech) to boot. Pairs very nicely with dual blades. Dual blades is a fantastic set in my opinion. Blinding feint + attack vitals is your bread and butter. Throw in typhoons edge for extra AoE and you are golden. Highly recommended.

Rune of protection is used for both status protection and as a resistance boost (or both) depending on the build. So, I disagree it boils down only to status protection. Each use of RoP is equally valid. I also disagree that the relative value of other pool powers or power picks is immaterial in the context of the arguments. I’d say that that is one of the most material aspects to the argument. Power picks are all about opportunity cost. I pick up one pool at the expense of another because I feel the relative value is worth the opportunity cost. When the value of a power pick is reduced it is natural to then look at the other powers competing for a chance to be picked. That is what planning a build is all about. The fact that the devs are shooting for parity in duration shows that they are also comparing pool powers. In my testing of the various builds that use RoP, I have found that they are negatively impacted. This is to be expected with a nerf. Even though the duration is now the same as the other t5s I still wouldn’t pick them for the same reason I didn’t pick them to begin with: I don’t think they have a long enough duration to go that deep into the pool at the expense of other power picks. Instead I will respec back into the tried and true leadership pool on several characters. I understand wanting to have parity between origin t5 durations. The reasoning behind wanting to achieve parity is likely either due to the devs thinking RoP is overpowered or thinking that they want to see other origin pools picked more. Given that they chose to nerf RoP instead of buffing the duration of the others it would appear that they agree with your stance that it is overpowered. I suppose it’s also possible that they purely just wanted the powers to have the same duration with no other deeper thought. Thus people have asked why not increase the duration of the other t5s to match, which would be the same solution as to encourage the picking of the other t5s. That is where the negative feedback comes into play. They asked us to test the changes and provide feedback. Those of us that have tested and disagree with that stance that RoP is overpowered are sharing our feedback as requested. It shouldn’t be disregarded because some players don’t think RoP should or even is really used for a reason other than mez. It also should not be disregarded just because some people believe an archetype should or should not be able to do something. Archetypes have evolved over the course of the game and the addition of IOs and incarnates have changed a lot of the “should” and “shouldn’t” aspects of the game. People are free to have their opinions on what each archetype should and shouldn’t be able to do, but they are just opinions. None more valid than the other. The devs are free to do with the feedback (positive and negative) as they please. The players will adapt as always.

Snipped for brevity: Honestly, wanting to adjust just one instead of two power to create equity is a valid point. The goal may be nothing more or less than making durations the same and it was just more time effective to change RoP. It may be nothing more than that. Considering they are a volunteer with other real life responsibilities I can honestly understand that. I think the devs have generally been pretty open about changes they want to make and their reasoning. Even if we don’t necessarily like their reasoning or the change itself. I do agree however that the change is likely to go through. They have walked back some changes in the past though. So there is hope. If not though I understand.

I do not use defense amplifiers. So it’s either break frees or more careful playing. When rune is not up adjust my play style mainly by pulling so I don’t get overwhelmed. If I am able to get repel to keep them on their butts and have time to get fulcrum shift off I am generally okay. Like I said, it’s still playable. Just have to be more careful more often. I’ll stick up more on break frees. Also, I use RoP proactively almost always. The only time I don’t is if I am mezzed, about to die, don’t have a break free and rune comes off cooldown. I understand that there was a buff added, but in my opinion it’s not worth the loss of uptime. Edit: I think it’s also worth noting something about my general build philosophy as it may shed light on how I view this change. I always try to have my build self contained without using incarnates to plug important holes. I definitely do not plan builds around using base buffs and temp powers. So, I never expect to have perma mez protection on squishies for example. Every important aspect of my build comes thru power picks and slotting. There are two exception to this rule: I build bio armor with barrier in mind and I rely on ageless for my farmers recovery.

I play solo most of the time so do not rely on teammates to fill gaps. My testing of the RoP change included the following: Testing see if nerf is noticeable and by how much. I play different when rune is up than when it isn’t. This is especially so on squishies. Ice/kinetics corrupter: Performance with RoP is noticeably better than without. The uptime nerf is also noticeable. Still playable? Yes, everything is playable. Worse than before? Absolutely. MA/Regen Brute: I rotate RoP with instant healing. The uptime nerf is very noticeable. Still playable? Yes. Worse than before? Absolutely. DP/Ninja Blaster: RoP is very helpful to protect from mez and also to boost mitigation. Uptime nerf is very noticeable. Mez still get through even with s/l/e softcap. Still playable? Yes. Worse than before? Absolutely. BR/EnA Sentinel: I use RoP mainly to boost resist during stress encounters or among mobs with psi damage. Uptime nerf not as noticeable as on others, but have found myself wanting it up more on psi heavy mobs. RoP is a big part of plugging that hole. Still playable? Yes. Worse than before? Yes. Dark/Shield Scrapper: Use RoP much the same as for the sentinel. Again, uptime nerf not as noticeable as on the squishies, but did notice it on ranged heavy mobs because of how I fit in RoP. Still playable? Yes. Worse than before? Yes. Now for level of annoyance with how the nerf disrupts my playing: -Ice/kin corruptor: Very High. Get mezzed and it’s basically over if I don’t have a break free. Damage can spike very fast when mez and repel drops. -MA/Regen: Very high. The difference between having rune up and not is very noticeable and I hate the gap between rune and instant healing. Kind of takes the wind out of my sails for my regen characters to be honest. DP/Ninja Blaster: high. Not as annoying as on my regen brute or my kinetics corruptor. Mainly because I damage enough to kill enough mobs to survive well the aftermath without needing to ramp it up with fulcrum shift. Still a mez at the wrong time can = death. Dark/Shield Scrapper: Moderate. I still survive just fine without it. My main annoyance is that I made very specific build choices to pick up rune for the added resistance. It had enough uptime to make the sacrifices worth it. Now that uptime is likely to be nerfed. -BR/EnA Sentinel: low. Doesn’t impact me enough to raise a stink about it unless I solely fight psi mobs, which isn’t the case. How I will adapt if the changes go thru: - Corruptor: probably just won’t play it as much. - Blaster: will probably respec into leadership pool and out of rune. -Sentinel: will suck it up and do nothing. -Scrapper: will probably respec into leadership and out of rune. -Brute: this change really takes the wind out of my sails for regen. I specifically wanted to go high resistance instead of high defense for my regen brute. Will probably shelve for now along with my other regen characters. Just until I get over the change. Now for some points of discussion: I understand the the devs wanting to standardize the duration between the origin pool capstone powers. What I don’t like is standardizing then to 60s instead of 90s. This change will not make me consider taking the other origin pools instead of sorcery. It will definitely not make me consider taking the crappy armor t9 powers. At best, it’s just annoying and I keep rune. Otherwise, I just respec into leadership like so many other of my characters. Or I shelve the character until the newness of the nerf wears off. In my opinion, this change does not promote build diversity. It restricts it. If build diversity was not a consideration of this change, then I would ask that it be considered. If it was, then I don’t think this change promotes it. As I said in my first piece of feedback, I am bound to not like some changes the devs do. This is one of them. I still appreciate the work the devs do. If the change goes through I will adapt.

Caves. No AH in supergroups bases. Caves disguised as office buildings.

Agreed overall. However, if the reason is because melee are taking RoP over armor t9s, this has a lot less to do with RoP being decent and more to do with a lot of armor t9s being terrible power picks. Nerfing RoP won’t change that. I think making other pool powers better to increase the opportunity cost of going into sorcery to get rune is a much better solution. Gives more incentive for more build variety rather than restricting it even further.

I usually ask what difficulty level the leader plans to run and if it is a speed, kill all, or somewhere in between before joining if their advertisement doesn’t answer those questions. If any of those answers change after I join the team or are different than what was advertised I ask the leader why the change and to change it back. If they don’t, I leave the team. No hard feelings. I’m just not going to waste my time on something that isn’t running as advertised. If I join a kill most, I expect it to take longer and actually kill most. If I join a speed run I expect it to be speeding to objectives. If I join a +4 I expect it to be +4. If I join a +0 I expect it to be a +0. I don’t think there is anything wrong leaving a team if they change agreed upon settings.

Alright here is the build I used on test that worked out well. Highlights: - S/L resists at 86% in offensive. If you have 6 enemies around you evolving armor will cap out your S/L resists. - E/N defense at 41%. I take barrier destiny to cover the last 5%. -I honestly don't worry quite as much about f/c/t/p. They each have some defense (not toxic) and resists. -Ablative and dna siphon both recharge in less than 30s so their buffs can be perma. I personally use ablative before going into a mob and dna siphon once they are dead for the regen/recovery buffs. Parasitic aura has greater than 50% uptime. -Hasten is 5 seconds short of perma. -TF and ET both hit extremely hard. TF has the purple set & proc due to having higher base recharge and better proc rates. Bonesmasher and energy punch are also good. You have gloom for any ranged needs. -I pulled in power crash for your AoE, but this can be switch with whirling hands if you prefer as it would take the same exact slots/IOs. -Note I have fury set to 85%. The Build:

I can try posting a EM/bio brute build later tonight hopefully. My bio build philosophy: -Build to be in offensive 100% of the time. -Build for high recharge (keeps the offensive focus of the set and helps get your defensive clicks back faster) -Focus on resists for s/l. Cap s/l resists if you can. Don’t try to softcap s/l defense even though it’s possible. You have to give up a lot to do that. -Focus on on defense for e/n/f/c. Softcap e/n if possible, but get to 40% at least. Can always take barrier destiny to cover the last 5% since you won’t need recovery or recharge from ageless. -Use ablative before the fight, dna siphon after the fight on the dead bodies, and parasitic whenever it’s up. -You can use dna siphon as an attack instead if you’d like, but I generally don’t slot it that way. Then I just slot the attack set how I normally would regardless of secondary.

I guess that’s true. 1999 I think was the release date. I still think it needs to be in early 80s at the minimum for it to be considered “old”. Perhaps that is an old way of thinking though 😉

I have only tried the combo on test so far back when I was testing the changes. It is indeed very strong in the single target damage department. If possible I like to pair energy melee with a secondary that can heal. Using energy transfer a lot can bring your health down fairly quickly if you have no ways to heal yourself. Willpower, energy aura, and bio armor all have ways to mitigate this easily (so do some other armor sets). That said, I pair energy melee with shield defense on tankers for maximum BAMF status even though shield doesn’t have a heal (panacea, power transfer help here). I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with EM/Bio on brute.

Wait the matrix is considered old! That feels wrong. Or is this just the gif fight?