Sanguinesun

And that's the short sighted feature creep I was mentioning. But its the goals/mindset behind such changes that is what is the most contentious, imo. People still seem to forget that the "challenges" that live had were primarily to make people time sink/play longer to keep them subscribed and thus generate revenue for the company. Some people do seem to want to drive the game to return to that point; and then when other people mention that seems to be what's happening, the people who who want that are quick to offer the rebuttal of how its easier now still than live. Yet, when HC went public after years of being a select/secretive group, it was much -much- easier and more casual than now; but slowly it has been changing in the direction going towards that live slog in the name of challenge. They added the starred challenge content, and arguably only a very limited segment of the player base care for it and bother with it. But more people arguably prefer playing things more relaxed, casual, or just simply the antithesis of that of hard. Its as divisive as the inclusivity/exclusivity debates that also crop up on threads too(and that's not a coincidence either as you can guess who wave those flags similarly are one waving the "challenge" one also). But all in all, some may say this is just a vicious circle but really its a vicious spiral that slowly creeps on.

I consider the Archons to now be mini AV's. They're essentially over-tuned, but as you've seen, the response you get is "bring them in line with" or they were too easy etc. As the feature creep tree marking continues, more will be "made more in line" to the point that it'll cycle up and up. That's the intention. Not smacked all at once but over time with the dismissiveness against those criticizing it, as has been seen for a few years now. This wasnt the first and certainly wont be the last to be sure.

Whose idea? A segment of the devs that have been actively for years now trying to slowly make the game harder and "more challenging". Personally, I think having multiple Archons in a PI paper mish kill off many players when they rez at the same really makes me think someone on the team has a council fetish.... Make no mistake. This was intentional. Make no mistake, they're going to continue to make it harder as has been seen before, supporters of it marginalizing the naysayers such as yourself as you've seen in the thread so far, and more. They may think its improvements but its just feature creep.

Outside of all the discussions, i'll circle back to the OP's questions. No. They're meant to be a perpetual foil/conflict. Then there's the limited resources/time of the player dev team too.

You're info regarding your wants is pretty vague and we're not you; so you're pretty much going to run the spectrum of suggestions from folks here without you narrowing your wants more.

1. Various AT's can do this but also how you do your sets and incarnates too factors. 2. Sappers are sappers, there's always going to be issues with them. Parts of point 1 can help but also chewing insps strats on how you deal with em too are relevant. 3. AV's are not one type fits all. Some set ups can be really good against some and then cant handle the others. AV fights can be dynamic as well in these regards too. 4. Then also dont consider Controllers or Dominators. 5. While various AT's can meet these, so do one's incarnates and sets too. Its more how you build a toon. So yes, you're basically wanting a do all on its own character. It doesnt exist. People will give you contrary responses to this perhaps but there will be always holes in what they claim and essentially there is no one character that can do everything in every situation. Game was meant to involve others in playing with others and doing so for a significant amount of time so that they remained paying for a sub. We've changed some of that on HC but there are caveats, limitations etc that still maintain the premise that nothing does it all. Instead of focusing on 50 fully kitted. Just focus on leveling 50's in group content where you only give it 30's regular IO's as you level from money the character makes as it levels. Plenty of methods to do this. Not only does that save you money for a toon you may wish to fully kit out later, it also takes all the pressure you've placed with your current wants on yourself. Then if you dont like it, park it. If you do, then incarnate and kit it out. If you're playing on Excelsior in group content, it takes a matter of a days only to hit 50 really. In other words enjoy the hike up the mountain instead of focusing on the time on the summit.

1. Cheap 2. Status Protections 3. Defense. Given the conditions placed on this and your focus on defense, Force Field seems the only real option best meeting your secondary choice wishes.

Been alot of returnees I've been encountering over the last few months. 99% have been excited to return, nice and willing to learn just how much has changed and hor HC changes have impacted the game. I've only encountered a few that were a problem. Those mostly amounted to impatience to learn/have something explained or one that went a bit off the rails in things that arent appropriate discussions here. Outside of that one(that I put on ignore), the rest I just let them guide what they wanted to (or not) know and let them be on their way to sink or swim as the desired. Not everyone is receptive to help even after asking for it. Im fairly sure I know who you're referring to as well. I've come to learn that this individual has personal issues that are not just on a character flaw level and that its either tolerating them on their team or putting on ignore to avoid their invitations. Not seeking to defend or condone bad behavior but simply to say there's more going on than just misanthropy. Its a shame but we do have some people who play the game who have challenges and unless they violate the rules of conduct, we can only make our own personal decisions in these regards.

There is/was another reason and not some movie IP either that folks arent thinking on....

To me, they're like the halloween ones. People will glut the market but set it higher and let it sit and you'll earn plenty from them. Also those no debt insp may have a market too.

Not in this case but increasingly, its becoming a statistical mess. So many things are inaccurate on it and always I have to double check with live game when there are questionable numbers and descriptions... as well as tedious testing on the beta server. Sadly too, city of data sometimes can have discrepancies as well but not with the sheer volume of discrepancies as mids can have.

The main difference is the +dam of Defiance that stacks on Blasters. Even with Opportunity factored on sentinels, the average damage in missions statistically works out that a blaster will be doing more damage to more mobs consistently.

Sell the tokens asap early. First day they started at 1mil then went to 50k super fast. I managed to sell of around 20 at 50k when I made a similar mistake of getting more than I needed... though I was only over by 20 from an hour of running around hehe.

Oh Snarky. Wait until you meet the 80's Buck Rodgers Space Vampire. So many new builds shall open unto thee:

That one irks me even more than the yin clickers.

I never recommend this point to new players. The costs involved in doing this are more than if a player simply invests in regular ole level 30 IOs(not sets) as its a 1 time purchase and if they decide to later switch to sets after learning the game more, they can respec and reclaim those regular 30's to then recycle use on another toon. One of the biggest challenges for new players is learning how to make money, but one of the other biggest challenges is learning how to be frugal with their money as well.

The entire list of things is as Zork said on the Luna vendor. Doesnt take too long to get everything either.

I tend to wait til 44/45 until hitting 50 to use em. I also pre-plan as well to make characters I dont necessarily want to spend alot of time leveling on during this month and then waiting to level them during halloween or mapserve months for this too. And yes it stacks charges from last year etc too. I've some toons now with 10 charges hehe.

Been seeing a few folks last week due to yin being the weekly that were intentionally ignoring people asking to wait to click the comps and then having the team overwhelmed and wiped and with comments eerily the same as some who commented they get their jollies by clicking and making their teams have trouble in this thread. I guess some people just have to go out of their way to be contrarian to their teams in an almost selfish manner. Its a shame but at least when folks see it happen just have the rest of the team know and agree to global ignore em. Eventually they'll be essentially self marginalizing themselves....

You still seem to not be getting what either of us are stating...

This is a common issue: concept/thematic play vs the meta of play. They're not uncommonly contrarian to each other, even in cases where folks get creative. So you're going to need to make a choice. Are you going to go for the effectivity meta potentially sacrificing your wants for theme or are you going to stick with a theme, only casually play it and not worry on optimizing effectivity? That's where you're currently stuck. If you want more effectivity in terms of the fire though in its resistences, then you'd really be wanting to look at a tank. Brutes --by the time they end game-- can more effectively flesh out their resistances on fire to be near 90% cap'd but its at a big sacrifice to other effectivities such as damage etc. Tanks on the other hand have it easier to hit those caps but yes a tad less damage. Also, you talked about concept with fire not matching you on a brute due to the sword powers above but there's something worth mentioning that is different with tanks vs brutes in the fire melee: Combustion. Its AOE with decent recharge(made lower with good +recharge bonuses). Brutes get the single target cremate instead(but not a bad power since you can slot a +recharge proc in it). If you want to start to be more flexible in your concept considerations as well, recoloring things like Radiation armor also give you better resistances(cold being one of the only smaller holes) since it has multiple aoes doing damage that also double for more benefits such as regen/heal/endurance etc. For melees you can also consider as mentioned savage(savage and radiation armor are a good combo on may different AT's btw), you can also consider changing colors for darm melee, flexibly considering spines(as you can change them to look more like flat spines of a dragon either in slate or crystal colorizing (but the set isnt necessarily more damage effective mind you just a variation you may thematically consider).... and more. But if you're wanting to min/max and forego your thematic concerns, there are a plethora of threads for brutes or tanks that start talking about numbers and the meta more you can start to consider.

And in the vein of comparing with a scrapper to a brute while leveling them up in terms of the context of the op's wants, that's also why I placed it more at the 50% to contrast with that average: that the brute will still be more compelling to do more damage through the overall variety of missions that the OP would encounter as they traverse through different story arcs. If we up it to 75%, it skews things even more in favor of a brute in that same context, compellingly.

That was not the point being made and rather strange that you've made it. The point being made was for a statistical average to compare the damage output of a scrapper, not that a brute is able to maintain some sort of 50%. Fury is of course a constant dynamic depending on the brute's interactions. Because a brute's going to have encounters where they've zero fury, middling fury, and near max fury, the 50% was being meant to exemplify a numeric average and nothing else for the comparative purposes with that of the scrappers criticals if the two are being compared, say for the same sort of mission interactions whilst level 1-50.

Your stated original goal was for soloing a Savage/Radiation Armor toon as you level up in content and this being evidently through story arcs etc. With that in mind(as so many others have strayed to other things in these regard: 1. Brutes, can reach (depending on how they're built) 90% damage resistance caps. Scrappers are limited to capping to 75%. However while leveling, attaining either of those caps on damage categories isn't wholly possible for them all(some yes but not all). First off Rad's main hole is cold. Luckily that's a less encountered type through story arc progression 1-50 as a whole. Its there but not as prominently as other types. Secondly, even if you were employing the use of expensive sets of invention origin enhancers, you're still going to have challenges fleshing those resistances fully out until 50. Again yes some damage types like slashing/lethal will be much more easily attained earlier. But its also important to remember that also challenges in missions increase as you go higher too. Third, your choices of mission difficulties will factor. If you're making difficulty -1 for a team of 1, as an example, most things are going to be easy(albeit your exp is going to be dramatically less per mission. Conversely if you make it +4/8, you're going to be concrete licking likely alot more. 2. Brute damage is effective but increases in effectivity the more you're dealing damage/taking damage. As a general rule, instead of thinking on max fury bar giving you max damage, think in terms of half a bar for a reasonable average. Scrappers by contrast get more of their damage through their critical chance and damage. However, scrappers really do not flesh out their stronger damage until they're employing their expensive Scrapper Archetype enhancemeents for chances to increase both the critical hit chance and damage output from them. Thus if you're leveling 1-50 as a scrapper, just using the standard invention origin enhancers and not that of special AT's enhancements or other set ones, In terms of overall damage out put 1-50, the evidence is more compelling that a brute is going to do more damage than a scrapper. Another factor is your choice of savage which gets a recharge and endurance discount in its melee set. This means you're firing off more attacks which means your fury bar will fill more readily as well. Scrapper too of course will hit more times giving more chances for their criticals but when comparing the two, the faster fury is going to outpace the critical in various situations that I've outlined before per your goals. However, we're not accounting for other variables with regards to that damage: your play style. If you enter missions, use stealth, and just rush to the boss at the end, the scrapper may be more effective/quicker potentially. However, if you encounter a boss (and minions) that require more time to down, the brute will likely be a more effective choice due to the fury build and the survivability pointed out in point 1. Or if you need to do defeat all missions, a brute is going to more or less be the overall better damage effectivity choice. So when you know that story arcs have: -Defeat Alls -Rescues(kill mobs around npc(s) in a mission) -Escorts(clear to the kidnap/escort, head back to the entrance and handle ambushes that occur on the way) -Defeat boss (kill boss and clear the room/near the room they're in). -Click glowies around the map (guarded by mobs and essentially mimicing almost a defeat all) .... and more.... then it becomes a more compelling in damage and suvivability terms, that a Brute is going to be more effective 1-50 progressively than a scrapper. To hit this home more damage wise too: here's a level 50 chart comparison for the trapdoor mission thread across ATs Of note from that, the average clear times between the scrapper using savage and a brute using savage are only a measly 2 seconds difference between the two (scrapper being the 2 seconds faster). --BUT-- That was for an -At-50-Toon-, with slots, power choices, incarnates etc being the same. Ston clearly states that in terms of survivability he was chewing defense, resistance, etc (but not reds on purpose) inspirations to make the test more focused on damage/time clear. (they were also using willpower so its again meant to be a benchmark for damage clearing not survival/armor set). My point being that leveling 1-50 is going to be different than what not a small number of people thread are focused on (ie post 50 damage considerations and survivability thinking) with comparisons of scrapper vs brute. So, in conclusion, I just dont find the evidence to be compelling, given your goals and choices for savage/radiation(solid pick imo btw for so many other reasons) for doing solo, story arc missions, that a scrapper would be more effective than a brute, even if you factor play style variables either.

1. I recommend reading up on how the -res procs work in relation to application via same or different powers. 2. AV's vary in their resistances/defences as well of course their attacks and your required defenses and resistances. As a general rule on a scrapper then that you're attempting to make an all around various AV killing centric toon, you wanting to make sure you cover most bases. Sets like bio will not be adequate in terms of your protective needs. Rad armor is not only capable of being well resistance setup for most all(except cold will be your only hole really) damage types but you'll also have multiple damage mitigating and offensive options in the set as well. But another factor is, what does others on your team bring to or compliment/supplement your choices? Most cases on a team, you're needs are far less to keep you alive as well as to help you take down collectively an AV. If you're soloing, then you need every ounce of protections and mitigations as possible in addition to strong single target melee and other supplemental things to help mitigate an AV's capabilities such as regen etc of course. Some suggestions thus far arent necessarily taking this more into account. 3. Fire's armor set has more pronounced holes that you will require alot more sacrificing of damage and other mitigations to round out your resistances as well as to give you defense. Again if on a team then it wont matter as much. Dont hyper focus on burn as over the years its received various nerfs and as well it has a flee component built into the ability unfortunately as well. 4. Its less and bio has significant holes as mentioned above. Remember too while in offensive stance, you take a hit to your resistances and while in defensive you take a hit to your damage. Therefore, its better in groups where your holes can be patched by others and you can run around on offensive, only flipping to defensive stance as needed. 5. You should keep in mind that the times he's sported there are not the best times a scrapper can do on pylons. There's even a video and someone who did it on a DB/Bio in well under 50 seconds. See this thread's page here where Ston posts the build/attack chain and a vid here: But again, dont be fooled. Its just a dps check not a dynamic situation of an AV. Dual Blades is lethal damage focused as well which is more resisted by AV's in addition to smashing(but again --depends-- on the av too as some are going to be more resistance to other damage types.) So, in general, you cannot make an all AV hunter without having some AV's resistant to what ever damage type you choose. Just make what is both damage and survivability(and that includes endurance strongly too as AV's are endurance fights) balanced and effective. But again remember there is no one "best". That is 100% an intentional design feature by the original devs for making characters. But not having certified cookie cutter builds and variations being so bogged down in the minutae of details, it kept people trying different things(and thus paying for their subscriptions.) Then any time people -did- start to come up with "this beats all" sorts of things, that's when "adjustments(nerfs)" tended (and still do) happen. This isnt to say that you cant build something effective, its just that you need to frame it better within the context of what your goal(s) are. Also circling back to pylon/single target flatfooted thinking in fights, remember that not all AV fights are that either. Some have mobs/summon mobs to fight/distract and more. 6. Ston also has a thread regarding trapdoor times(that's getting through mobs then to a boss at the end that can be a challenge) and its times then start to show very different considerations: You'll then notice in that thread that the top scrapper melee sets start to shift in time considerations vs Someguy's stated pylon times show. This is because neither are encompassing the spectrum of what one encounters with fighting different AV's but that at least the trapdoor mission is accounting for the dynamics of encounters up to and including the boss fight and its mechanics. They are also focused on a slight misdirection of -Times- for defeats. Time inst necesarily an accurate metric for all CoH related defeating considerations. Remember there are builds by other AT's that can take down AV's with little challenge in terms of survivability too but at the requirement of patience. There's a few people on the forums that have devoted tons of youtube videos to their feather-in-their-cap threads of soloing/duo'ing high end challenge content yet when scrutiny is applied, you start to see it took them a considerable amount of time in many cases. For them, it wasnt about time but just simply about downing hard content. 7. Hopefully you're starting to see that there is a lot more entailing what you need to consider and as well as moving in a different frame of thinking of what you're currently considering. No one has made or done extensive testing of a plethora of AV encounters(and including their missions) in solo terms nor in group terms where the specifics of the groups are factored either. This is just simply because its pretty tedious amounts of effort to do so and in which any months later changes to the game(as there's always something with this team wanting to make their mark with hubric progression creep) that can slightly or even dramatically alter previously tested results. 8. The "you" factor. How you play factors much into some of the considerations for choices/builds/strats. As an arbitrary example, I've seen so many different fire farmers using forum cookie cutter builds and observed how widely their effectivity in their influence per hour is (active farmers mind you..... passive/AFK farming tends to be less varied for obvious reasons). And the list can go on really. You're going to need to spend more time digesting more information, cross referencing such things, use mids to make tenative builds, and then going on the beta server to actually insta level/gear out toons to then effectively test in av fights/missions for your needs. That's obviously a lot of work but if you're looking to min/max/make effective a scrapper for your goals for all for all of that, its going to be the best way to ensure your goals are more likely to be met. Worst thing for your to do is take some build from here, level it up, to only then find out it was a bust and all that effort was a discouraging waste(unless you are the type of person to appreciate the hike up the mountain vs looking from the summit). Best of luck.