SinergyX

Missed a few out so i doubled this time 🙂

They never were the big guys, but it was my first MM, and it will be my last :P Though i feel 1 part that could help, the animations. Majority of their attacks are basicly 3-4 hits with a considerable longer cast time then say thugs or maybe even robots. The idea behind a medic is nice, execution always failed on him. The whole idea about the CC stuff (and flametrower/sniper/stealth/LRM) is cool, but execution just doesnt fit in the gameplay.

Dark Consumption (Tanker, Scrapper, Brute) has been reworked into a Lightning Rod-style mini-nuke, with its damage scaling based on your current Endurance percentage. At full Endurance, Dark Consumption will now deal similar damage to Lightning Rod. Like i said on the main thread about it, i feel more for changing Soul Drain into the warshade Black Dwarf Mire, it has the same effect, but is just a 20sec cooldown more in like with the other sets aoe's (be it 16 or 20sec cooldown).

Dark Consumption Maybe it's me, but wouldn't it be nicer to leave that power, yet replace the dmg/acc one with the warshade lobster one? 20sec CD aoe, which kinda more normalise aoe dmg across sets. (they either 16 or 20sec)

No idea where you see i say 7 were worst and 4 are better, i just take random examples of sets, i just say overal Fire has the lesser side of plugging holes.

Council if you go PI +4/8 perhaps? Or majority is replaced by wolves, vampiri and those .. dark spam guys. The odd guy in CoT groups, but as you said.. they be down in a blink. Is there even an AV that does cold?

I'm pretty sure it wasnt last year, its the reason i went Rad on most of my melee toons (i was a bio fan back then), though cant remember much from it anymore as it was psi/EA and psi turned out not really something i liked 😛 My last attempt was a dark/EA, i gave up in favor of a DP/WP. BR is a fun set, the disintegrate gives a odd layer of extra damage, but it really has no connection of any power, open disintegrate, pop the rest, hope the aoe stuff hit something, i run a BR/elec atm wich does pretty damn well solo, but i feel lacks in the aoe department (i feel the link of refraction is rather short). Elec is your blaster elec, but just a bit lesser damage. The snipe got replaced by a shorter range high dmg power. The stuff where it gets its shine, the run from ranged into pbaoe, ball lightning, thunderous bolt, wrap up with short circuit, pop your clickies, off you go, and still have your pet (well, i called him 'shorty'). With the epic pool you can quite rebuild your elec/elec/elec blaster, thougher but just lower damage (specialy on TB, wich is a 10 target).

They both got the +end clicky, both got heal+regen clicky, i'm just bit more fan of electric due to the resist to -end/-rec and bits of -recharge, plus the elec epic pool suits well for the set. EA is more mixed def/resist and u can get quite nice numbers out of simple IO's (close to 40ish), but i started to hate it alot when i fought aranchos a bit too much, the psi hole (even overload) was stupid annoying, also the powersink is a longer animation then elec version. Entropy shield is basicly the fun part, but as Beam Rifle i dont think as much. The more you can be up and close (and around) mobs, the better recharge you got, i was Elec/EA/Elec and that suits running around in the crowd very well. Once i got elec slotted, the regen on that set is quite strong, i think 800ish% regen is quite easy to obtain.

Rad, stone (rooted), dark, all got 85%, inv got 25%, Bio got on -end (not -rec). As for -recharge, you would be amaxed, even Inv got 20, elec and rad got pretty high numbers, ice offcourse is master. Some lack the same KB (or repel), but cover that with -perc or even confuse/fear, im not saying fire armor is serious lacking, but its basicly quite a few hole to plug on fire armor, that apart of farming, i would pick any set over fire armor specialy on resist-sets (ok.. maybe not dark). True, i was just looking at the bigger picture on other sets and combo's, where some sets can obtain the upperhand over brute, but remain far less effective on farming.

Fire tank has a bit more holes that other sets have covered, some have no -end or -recharge resist, others no -psi, lesser mez protect, its kinda fire got serious all of that 😛

Does mids something odd with incarnate? I see you took muscular, yet turning it off actualy lowers resistance of negative and psionic by like 4%.

The problem is you cant fully reproduce the exact same situation on both AT's, mobs wonder off (fear of burn), they stack up wrongly, there is no clean comparison to see wich of the 2 actualy run around faster. Only point is simply testing 1 power at its total damage and calculate from there. And even then it will be a story around fiery armor and burn (where both remain equal, 5 cap and a summon), where the actual attacks that got buffed have only portion of total damage done. Fiery melee for example has tankside with 2 true AOE's, plus increased range and targetcap, one where brute looses alot. Other sets have mostly cones wich make hitting 10 quite the hard job (unless 180 degree), like staff you can hit the 16 on eye storm, but quite impossible 10 with the 2 cones. But then we fall back to fiery armor, majority of damage comes from burn. Then it just boils down how long can you keep up the cap damage buff (700 vs 500) where the difference will be shown. Im sure if you put a graph on bonus damage versus output, there will be a sweetspot for tanks to take over, but either below it or at the top, brutes remain the higher damage. Take fiery armor out of the equation and i think that sweet spot is alot bigger to certain sets.

Not only the target cap on their abilities (though i believe burn still has the 5 on the initial tick), the increase to 0.95 melee gives it that bit of extra oompf to get near brute. The damage then scales up exponentially, just some fictional numbers, a tank can do the same damage at 400% bonus compared to a 600% brute. However, as burn makes up the most of the damage, wich has a 5 target initial tick and summons (as burn is) isnt increased on limit, i doubt u gain the upperhand there. So the split there is the melee attack caps, presumable the increase just makes up the bit less top damage of a tank, as the fast runners pretty much spam red's nonstop. I'm mainly focusing on other sets, that just can go around being tank as well doing some farming, and from the 9 sets tested (4 brutes, 5 tanks), oddly my bio/katana currently running second. I assume 'farmers' (as a sidejob) tankers gain the upperhand once they rely more on their attacks where majority is buffed on targetcap. However, due placement of the mobs and arcs of certain attacks, i doubt you hit more mobs at all dispite the higher cap (footstomp easily can hit 16, however fire breath is quite tricky to even hit 6, let alone hit 10). For staff i tried guarded spin several times, my best consistent hits were 7 targets, dispite it went 6->10, i only manage to hit 1 extra target wich unlikely can push tank up to brute level.

That probably your Clarion radial buff running, it does some odd stuff with the defense. Just turn it off in Mids and see what happens.

Well if you take other AT's and go crazy, sub 4 minutes is very much possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgjeLdNUWt8 Thats a 3:42. Unless you absolute wanna go min/max on this and your time is the most precious thing you can imaging, thats your goal. I'm probably doing around 14-15 minutes (if procs and mobs be nice to me), above brute can do 4 of his in the same period, but thats on a generic game tank, i do TF's and missions, farms and stuff, so i'm far from optimised and absolutely not a /fire brute 😛 (tbh and people will hate me for it, just nerf the ... out of burn and lets see what people can actualy come up with. Maybe its back to fire/kins (though target limit is a issue), or people make the most diver type of farmers out there. I'm not saying its 'unfair', i just say it feels too cookie-cutter to always go for the same stuff)

Here is the build of the topic starter. Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Brute Primary Power Set: Spines Secondary Power Set: Ice Armor Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Lunge -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(37), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(45), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(45) Level 1: Frozen Armor -- Rct-Def(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(13), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg(13), Rct-Def/Rchg(15), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Rct-ResDam%(17) Level 2: Spine Burst -- Arm-Dmg/Rchg(A), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Arm-Acc/Rchg(3), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Arm-Dam%(5), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(7) Level 4: Hoarfrost -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(7), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(9), Prv-Heal/Rchg(9), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(11), Prv-Absorb%(11) Level 6: Chilling Embrace -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 8: Build Up -- GssSynFr--Build%(A) Level 10: Wet Ice -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 12: Kick -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A) Level 14: Tough -- GldArm-ResDam(A), GldArm-End/Res(17), GldArm-RechRes(23), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(25) Level 16: Weave -- Rct-Def(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(45), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(46) Level 18: Quills -- SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBrtFur-Dmg/Rchg(19), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), SprBrtFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), SprBrtFur-Rech/Fury(23) Level 20: Glacial Armor -- LucoftheG-Def(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(25), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(27), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(27), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(29) Level 22: Energy Absorption -- MckBrt-Taunt(A), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg(29), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(31), MckBrt-Acc/Rchg(31), MckBrt-Taunt/Rng(31), MckBrt-Rchg(34) Level 24: Spirit Ward -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A) Level 26: Mystic Flight -- WntGif-ResSlow(A) Level 28: Rune of Protection -- Ags-ResDam(A), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(48), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(50), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(50) Level 30: Permafrost -- Ags-ResDam(A), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(46), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(46), Ags-Psi/Status(48) Level 32: Throw Spines -- SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprUnrFur-Dmg/Rchg(33), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), SprUnrFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), SprUnrFur-Rchg/+Regen/+End(34) Level 35: Icicles -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(A), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(36), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(37) Level 38: Electrifying Fences -- SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg(A), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx(39), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(40), SprFrzBls-Rchg/ImmobProc(40) Level 41: Ball Lightning -- Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(42), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Rgn-Knock%(43), Ann-ResDeb%(43) Level 44: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(50) Level 47: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48) Level 49: Hibernate -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Fury Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A) Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon Level 50: Ion Core Final Judgement Level 50: Barrier Core Epiphany Level 50: Assault Core Embodiment ------------

As tanker you take one baseline: there always be something that will hurt you big time. Some enemy groups are just so mixed, it only takes 2 types to hurt pretty bad. IO's can fill gaps very decent (ok, maybe Ice not), tanking is not only about being beefed up for the fight, but also know your enemy. Sappers in the old days were deadly to anyone with no -end-resist, -def is still deadly with sets that have no -def protection, even Granites can face groups that just take you down. Specialy on SR you playing the russian roulette game, even the floor of 5% something can hit and if you unlucky, its a stupid hard hitting. You can always pick the basics, tough/weave, some resistance IO's and sets, adding that extra cushion when stuff does hit you. Dont forget that in the early days, Ice was a very large used tank and is also mainly def based. Read a bit about numbers, what are the caps on defense, resist, how its works, fill in the few gaps you have on a SR set (mainly resistance), for example i took rune of protection from the mystic pool (resist clicky, gives like 25% all resist), went for the dark epic pool for darkest night (-acc -dmg toggle, wich i believe does -15% acc and -21% dmg), put it on a high target and stuff around it will be affected. Though i havent played SR recently alot, i asume the new 50% radius/range buff also applies to darkest night, making it even stronger. But whatever happens in a team, remember you are not alone. You are in a party, people all should contribute defeating stuff and keeping eachother alive. If you lucky and get a thermal and sonic in the team (both can do resist buffs), you be a laughing tank with crapload positional defense and a huge pile of resist to back it up.

You can still start off with a fire, to understand how majority of fire/ tanks work (or later on, /fire brute), but you will need to pop quite the insperations to keep on going without any IO or incarnate. From a 'fast farm' perspective, go for a fire brute anyway. Take a tank that you like to play, personaly i hate fire tanks/brutes, so i may be alot slower for example on my staff/rad brute, but i enjoy it so so so much more to just wack stuff around and having nothing to worry about. Specialy with the new range/radius buff, some melee are enjoyable to play and can do quite nice damage.

I would personaly pick innoucuous strikes instead of precise strike, the aoe buff on tanks makes its a nice added aoe power (with decent damage), with that much recharge you wont be doing that big rotations anyway (you can pretty much juggle around blow, storm and splitter), and it syncs up with your alpha core (immobilize). You filled up the energy gap quite well 🙂

Tank has a far easier time to hit resist cap with evolving armor (think Inv def style), there are a few brute bio builds out there with a solid base (75-80% SL), i'm really not a min/max builder but its not hard to wrap up a nice base for a tank on Bio. I love the offensive mode to ditch out a bit more damage. I think there are some brute ones around that are quite solid (though bit overdone on resist, since tank got higher base).

My only gues would be alpha, i dont remember much from regen brutes on original COV apart they had issues taking alpha. However, tank always has a few notches more defense/resist/stuff then brute, cranking up the regen of regen (lol) even more might be a bit off? Though i assume EA could just as well be at the tanker side (brute going 13 atm, while tank 11). But overal, i doubt Regen is even that popular that even if tank would get it, people would use it (i believe it was the most nerfed set out there, sad the sentinal one is actualy nice).

If you have harder needed powers, i would pick those over the T8 and T9, i havent tested a fully slotted ground zero on a team but on my rad/staff i just use it as a aoe filler to just add a bit of damage. As i dont see any exclusion of the radius buff, with a base of 15 its quite big and 90sec base can be made quite spammable. Dispite hero designer saying it does 88 base, i dont really seen it do that much dmg (even on a brute). T9 meltdown is a panic button, yes it gives 33% dmg buff, but with a base of 8min/1min and a very little crash (bit of end), so use it wisely, it does add nicely to psi putting you base i believe close to 50% resist (along with Fallout shelter), very optional.

By the looks, it does, the downside.. its stupid low damage. Maybe it scales from the power you use (i only tested this on the T1 power, but doing ~80 dmg with T1, gives about 15dmg aoe).

They roll around the same 'style' as Axe, mace and katana, you got a nice melee def buff (nice to focus on, since Bio base is typed defense on element), AoE has a dot, headsplitter hits so lovely hard. Specialy axe, mace and BS share alot of animations, its kinda your personal preference wich you like more (like i dont really like the stun of mace). I tend to like Axe slightly better, since you can slot 2 powers with +rech proc (the cone and aoe) wich slightly suit Bio bit more with the 3 clickies.

For both now: No. But we dont know what the devs are capable of doing in the future, they already managed the Mirror feature on illusion, maybe they can do more in the future. But for now, dont expect these features to come anytime soon (or at all).