Leogunner

Probably not. You'd start getting into cottage-rule territory. The target of Thunderstrike is being hit with an attack that deals a lot more damage than the AoE (also, there's a chance both attacks will crit the target for even more pain) whereas with Golden Dragonfly, all targets are being struck with the same high-powered attack. Making it a hybrid single-target/AoE would also introduce the prospect of double crits. Sidenote: If you haven't made an Electric Melee stalker, I can't recommend it enough. If you want to play Electric Melee, it's just so much more potent on a Stalker.

I had thought about saying the exact same thing in my previous post since I had to repeat myself. But you know, the day is too short and it is no skin off my back if you think Savage Melee is underperforming. You're entitled to your opinion. I know I asked a guy I grouped with this morning who uses the powerset what he thought of it (he was level 26 FWIW) and he said he was quite enjoying it. But not everyone will and you're one of those. Easy solution, drop the character and move on. To be fair, there are players who enjoy playing Dark/Dark without IOs. Some just like to watch the world burn. In the context of this thread - there is NOT a world where in it's current form and without SIGNIFICANT time and Inf spent, that Savage Melee outperforms virtually any other set in quality of life play and single target total dps. The issue with subjective reasoning is that a few people saying "it's fine" literally does nothing to further the knowledge required to help remedy the set. I will confess that my opinion and point of view heavily weighs on how well the set performs as that is how I judge "fun"and whether a set or build is "fine". With this is mind, there is little room for any conflicting arguments that in no way offer solutions or specific build gimmicks to alleviate this fact. SM underperforms in virtually every aspect of the current CoH scape. Which leads those like Leo to question the presence of a bug. And I am somewhat inclined to agree. Part of me still thinks that we could be missing something, and perhaps when built "correctly" , the set reaches a new level. Though, with the same investment, most other sets will probably still out perform it. The main reason I chose SM was to utilize how AoE focused the two heavier hitters are, so that when paired with /Dark, I could stack enough DoTs and slight burst to efficient and lean on the inherent -End to help with /Dark. In practice, with standard IO's and no sets - I still have end issues, and the damage feels flaky. /shrug What initially got me curious was doing a search for the set. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,1012.msg5471.html#msg5471 This post (interestingly, no responses) got me looking into the wiki and comparing them to the powers I'd soon be getting. Through more searching, it's just very little dialog on the set. Eventually I'll have to work on parsing numbers and do more testing but I DO NOT like having to powerlevel things T_T This probably will not make you feel any better - but outside of my character concept for SM (SM/Dark for a dark, Dante style fighter), the set was so poor in general practice, that I resorted to PL'ing him in AE. Which was not my initial intent since returning to the city. I wanted to enjoy my character concept and PLAY the game. But, the set i chose....yikes. Currently still has major issues and I have since moved on to Rad/Fire and going to start building an all-arounder in the form of DM/SD or DB/Rad. Just haven't settled yet. Side note - Since returning...the scrapper forums feels vastly different than I remember. There is far less focus on unique challenges, building, and learning. Kind of disappointing. I still plan to level my brute but I kind of did the same and started on other projects, namely my Claw/EA brute I started to remember I made back in the day. I recall it being a fun stealthy murderer that was much easier to kill with than Savage. The brute I remade into into savage used to be an elec/elec brute and while it was a slog early on, he had the feature of being able to drain his foes making him able to at least not be a helpless doe in headlights against something that isn't going down fast.

The cone is extremely small and Lightning Rod, the giant PBAoE from Electric Melee with superior damage, doesn't have this debuff. Seems super unbalanced to me. Are you sure? The info I see for that power says it can't crit from Hidden at all. Ah you're right, my mistake, I'm using the PINES descriptions and it seems to be missing. Sorry about that. But either way, for abilities like Eviscerate from Claws or Greater Fire Sword from Fiery Melee to have it, it still feels really bad. And the cone is genuinely tiny, no one ever bothers lining it up. You might be thinking of Thunderstrike which is both a single target and AoE around that target and can 100% crit that target but the AoE will get the AoE reduced chance. To explain it more, it is a 2-in1 attack: an energy /smashing damage to a target and an energy AoE. Each part has its respective category crit rage out of hide.

I don't think it matters but I'm on Indomitable. They're all pretty well populated. Maybe not pick the EU server for ping reasons but you can probably play there too without much issue.

I had thought about saying the exact same thing in my previous post since I had to repeat myself. But you know, the day is too short and it is no skin off my back if you think Savage Melee is underperforming. You're entitled to your opinion. I know I asked a guy I grouped with this morning who uses the powerset what he thought of it (he was level 26 FWIW) and he said he was quite enjoying it. But not everyone will and you're one of those. Easy solution, drop the character and move on. To be fair, there are players who enjoy playing Dark/Dark without IOs. Some just like to watch the world burn. In the context of this thread - there is NOT a world where in it's current form and without SIGNIFICANT time and Inf spent, that Savage Melee outperforms virtually any other set in quality of life play and single target total dps. The issue with subjective reasoning is that a few people saying "it's fine" literally does nothing to further the knowledge required to help remedy the set. I will confess that my opinion and point of view heavily weighs on how well the set performs as that is how I judge "fun"and whether a set or build is "fine". With this is mind, there is little room for any conflicting arguments that in no way offer solutions or specific build gimmicks to alleviate this fact. SM underperforms in virtually every aspect of the current CoH scape. Which leads those like Leo to question the presence of a bug. And I am somewhat inclined to agree. Part of me still thinks that we could be missing something, and perhaps when built "correctly" , the set reaches a new level. Though, with the same investment, most other sets will probably still out perform it. The main reason I chose SM was to utilize how AoE focused the two heavier hitters are, so that when paired with /Dark, I could stack enough DoTs and slight burst to efficient and lean on the inherent -End to help with /Dark. In practice, with standard IO's and no sets - I still have end issues, and the damage feels flaky. /shrug What initially got me curious was doing a search for the set. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,1012.msg5471.html#msg5471 This post (interestingly, no responses) got me looking into the wiki and comparing them to the powers I'd soon be getting. Through more searching, it's just very little dialog on the set. Eventually I'll have to work on parsing numbers and do more testing but I DO NOT like having to powerlevel things T_T

You're totally right. The main reason I started the thread is because I was looking through the forums and there just isn't much talk about the set. And considering the set wasn't actually released live initially (I think it was just on test servers but I could be wrong), you'd think more people would be discussing it. I made this thread in hopes someone experienced at parsing would take up the challenge as I'm not very good at it. For example, I had my brute out in Nerva scratching stuff to find out just how much DoT the blood frenzy bonuses add. For about 45 min I was scratching stuff and counting the DoTs and what I found for Hemorrhage at least, was that with no stacks, Hemorrhage does 5 DoTs and at max stacks it does 6 and each stack did around 10 points of damage more but then that could be due to fury and what not to get a few stacks built up in the first place. Basically, my collection of data was a mess and I'd probably have to roll up a Scrapper or Tanker Savage or perhaps some parser program. There's also the point that on the wiki, the powers were slated to do other things like regen or insta-recharge some skills. I'm thinking some of the things had to be cut but they didn't have time to fully balance them out before putting it live. Okay. If you stated a point and I replied to it, you don't have to state the point again. Like the whole point about Bio and how it plays a role in Savage's END effects have already been pointed out. We're at the impasse that would require numbers so your talking points don't require repeating. Or like the point that DoT is comparable to Knockdown. You'd have to be intentionally obtuse to even try to make that argument. Okay, so DoT shortens overall kill time...but what if the foe you're attacking is a Carnie with that one Mask ability that sinks your Res, Def and END? Or you're trying to stop a ghost from putting up its AoE -ToHit veil? A 100% knockdown would be very beneficial in the efficiency of killing them, not because knockdown is more efficient than DoT but because powersets are built to have utility to exploit a variety of situations. Why are you defensive about Savage Melee? At worse, some people will just decide not to play it. I'm hoping, if powers get an update pass with the people running the game, they'll throw a few changes to the set, namely a 100% knockdown in Vicious and reduce the exhaust time or just remove it. Also, I find it rather funny you think I'm some min-max guy looking for best performance and drop weak characters but then you also pointed out how my build has Jump Kick and Spring Attack. I'm not beyond making concept characters that specialize in the use of certain powers. ...but that shade you threw on Spring...I actually got this Brute to 36 and Spring Attack is pretty nice. His END problem also disappeared because he has a full heal for END every minute that requires zero accuracy but that doesn't mean Savage's END discount helped at all lol I also got to play around with Savage Leap. I was actually slightly disappointed that it is a TP to the target rather than a regular teleport like Spring, Shield Charge or Lightning Rod. But now that I think about it, I didn't know that was a thing the game could do. Maybe they spent a good deal of effort making that aspect of the set function properly and didn't get the time messing with the rest of the set.

To clarify, my Elec/Bio Stalker doesn't need end redux in its powers because Boundless Energy grants it much recovery and Efficiency mode practically makes it immune to running out of endurance. My Savage/Elec Brute DOES need end redux because until it can get Power Sink, the discount from Savage isn't sufficent as I've shown, that 23% END redux isn't enough to forego slotting for endurance reduction. The attacks are not that cheap to use. Are you being facetious now? Or are you just ignoring my statements? Yes, Savage applies a DoT...so does Dual Blades and it still has guaranteed knockdown. Savage also cost more endurance, has longer cast times and self-nerfs its boosts via a 12sec exhaustion compared to Claws. Also, your long lasting DoT amounts to 2 extra DoTs. Your attempt to justify Savage's lack of mitigation or utility is growing repetitive. You have yet to give any good reason why the set doesn't have a 100% knockdown when sets like Katana/BS have knockup, knockdown and can cap defense to melee/lethal AND they have DoT. WTF are you talking about? Now you're making no sense. Yes, Dual Blades costs more to cast than Claws...but Dual Blades has mostly everything claws has (a +dmg/ToHit attack, a 100% single target knockdown, a 100% cone knockdown...just not its skill END redux) with combos on top. Are you trying to say Claws is too strong because it has cheaper skills with more CC and utility? Or are you trying to say Savage has more DPS than claws because it has DoTs? Like iBones mentioned before, I think Savage has more DPS on groups of mobs...but it's only slight. Against single targets, many will outclass it, including Claws. Touting the set's DPS, I feel, is a loosing battle. I'll remind you that you're the one trying to defend the set's DPS while I'm arguing the set's lack of utility. You're trying to tell me that Savage Melee does enough damage to warrant a 67% single target knockdown and a bit of recharge bonus as its only utility.

I just had a thought after my previous post which runs rather counter to your statement at the end there. "the life of a Blood Frenzy stack"...are you always keeping your blood frenzy stacks capped? Do you avoid using Rending Flurry and Hemorrhage at max stacks? Or do you use them at 4 stacks? This whole discussion would be a whole different beast if the exhaustion mechanic wasn't so limiting. For me, I've tried just balls-to-the-wall and taking exhaustion on the chin but it hardly increases kill speed. I've tried limited use of the consuming skills and just maintain the blood stacks but that decreases kill speed and still runs out of endurance. I've tried balancing the negative effects of exhaustion using Blood Thirst but that has resulted in just as slow a kill speed as being conservative... ...but this all seems to stem from how much benefit blood stacks provides, the effect it has on the blood stack consumer skills and the exhaustion debuff. It's not adding up and I'm not even that big on numbers... I run Scrappers in place of Brutes, but monitor both forums as a result of little to no info on many sets that I prefer. To add to your discussion - Savage Melee FEELS like the damage is....higher than claws but less than fire? But at the same time, I can genuinely see the DoT's add up across multiple targets to achieve a rather large total average. Unfortunately, this means that outside of total averages, it generally feels slower damage-wise than most other "faster" activation time sets. Which begs the question of - was the set balanced around AoE DoT application with little to no effort in maintaining balance in a given time frame? Some points to be made - 1. The endurance reduction is not noticeable when paired with sets that would seem to benefit from it. 2. Blood Thirst makes the set feel A LOT better. The slow activation time is unfortunate. 3. Given the amount of potential AoE, this may very well be a set with higher highs and in general remain underwhelming before that point. To your point in regards to potential bugs Leo - I can't say that my first thought was "bug"...but i generally agree, the DoT component seems flaky at times. My gut tells me it can just be visual, but I can also see a world where some DoT are being missed, and could make all the difference. I can certainly attest to your comparisons with Claws. Claws is an efficiency set meant to dispose of fewer targets. I can see the potential for Savage being more damage due to its lack of comparable CC to Claws (is Shockwave still knockback? I do enjoy knockback but can definitely understand how it could decrease DPS to groups) and additional effect of DoT. Regarding the potential AoE, I guess I'll have to buckle down and just level to 33 so I can try out the full set. The concept in my head was a guy ripping and leaping through masses of foes, zipping around with Acrobatic AoEs simulated by things like unsuppressed movement, Savage leap and Spring Attack. I'll have to see if I can make the concept work although I wish I would have made him Energy Aura instead to capitalize off the stealth it inherently gets. Savage just doesn't feel like a set meant to draw attention or maintain presence though, not when you go through bouts of exhaustion in the middle of fights... That being said, I wish Blood Thirst made you immune to exhaustion for its duration and with a slight duration bonus. Well, 24% END redux.. Regardless, I don't believe that is enough, no. Even though I don't like directly comparing sets like this, take a look at Claws again. It's not stated directly, but it also has an inherent effect of less END costs. Simplified, it's attacks costs 3, 4, 6, 9, 7, 9, 11. Savage attacks cost simplified 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 13, 18. Taking in blood stacks' 25% redux, that's reduced to 3, 4.5, 6, 6.75, 9.75, 9.75, 13.5 which is still costlier than Claws...but this is a global discount that affects all your powers so there's that. Most sets range around +1-3 END more per attack than Claws, some AoEs even netting around 5 more END per activation. There also comes the prospect that the set (and sets like Dual Blades) that come with an attack that can be maintained 100% that buffs ToHit. It'd be the Equivalent of combining Blood Thirst's effects with Savage Strike's activation and the possibility of stacking the effect. Claws is quite efficient... But that's not all! Claws has Focus, a 100% knockdown on a short recharge and a cheap END cost (range can be ignored). It also has Shockwave, a 100% knockback. Just a no bias comparison here, which is looking more stacked here? Claws or Savage? And the funny thing is, Claws isn't even great. It's just efficient and middle of the road. If I were looking at making a more offensive looking Claws alternative, I'd be looking at Dual Blades. It also has a DoT feature as well as a "get even more +dmg and +ToHit" as well as a guaranteed CC mitigation option ontop of the features that Claws has. Again, why does Savage not have 100% knockdown (or something equivalent)? Why is its only debuff -def? Other sets get their gimmicks AND that stuff. No. We're talking about Savage Melee, not Bio. What you're saying isn't about Savage at all. Like I said before, my Elec/Bio Stalker does the same thing your SM/Bio Scrapper does with slotting so the common element here is Bio, not Savage.

What server did you end up picking?

I just had a thought after my previous post which runs rather counter to your statement at the end there. "the life of a Blood Frenzy stack"...are you always keeping your blood frenzy stacks capped? Do you avoid using Rending Flurry and Hemorrhage at max stacks? Or do you use them at 4 stacks? This whole discussion would be a whole different beast if the exhaustion mechanic wasn't so limiting. For me, I've tried just balls-to-the-wall and taking exhaustion on the chin but it hardly increases kill speed. I've tried limited use of the consuming skills and just maintain the blood stacks but that decreases kill speed and still runs out of endurance. I've tried balancing the negative effects of exhaustion using Blood Thirst but that has resulted in just as slow a kill speed as being conservative... ...but this all seems to stem from how much benefit blood stacks provides, the effect it has on the blood stack consumer skills and the exhaustion debuff. It's not adding up and I'm not even that big on numbers...

That's interesting. The way I monitor the bonuses is I just have Recharge bonus and Global Endurance Discount as attributes I monitor. Perhaps the set is bugged and isn't giving the proper amounts of bonuses for Brute. Right, I know that. I'm more trying to get you in the mindset of why we're comparing sets in a certain way. Fire's niche is clean, less resisted, unassisted DPS and is a sort of benchmark. Claws is kind of similar in that it's a benchmark for efficiency. It's mostly quick animations with a reduced cost for its skills. What I'm trying to nail down is where Savage falls in in there with regards to efficiency, effectiveness, speed and damage (that's all it has besides a ranged teleport). Either that or maybe discover the hidden secrets of Savage that I'm not experiencing. Brutes don't typically have to slot for damage early on because Brute damage scales on attacks are low. For example, looking at the numbers from the character creator: lvl 50 Scrapper Maiming Claw says 85 damage per activation lvl 50 Brute Maiming Claw says 54 damage per activation Slotting for 95% damage adds more for the bigger number. Not saying you don't bother slotting for damage on a Brute, it's just not as much a priority as accuracy and endurance (and recharge). Jump kick and Leap Attack are taking 3 slots slots away and are merely concept powers. Those skills are actually doing their job lol. They provide CC every now and again (Spring Attack also benefits from the recharge bonuses so I can use it a bit more often) and while not the most powerful and effective, sometimes you have to sacrifice a little to get those extra concept powers in there. I'm positive they aren't the source of the issue here lol Right, we've established Savage looks nice. As for what does Claws build stacks toward: the skill is called Follow Up. It actually works well because it can easily stack 2 times, adding 10% ToHit for each stack and does damage (and increases damage)...20% ToHit is very important with respect to how heavily you need to slot for Accuracy and just having a constant 10% ToHit can mean the difference between needing to 1slot Acc in all your attacks to needing to 2slot Acc in all attacks to hit higher level foes. But I'm not saving slots! I still have to slot endurance reduction on my attacks to get by. That's one of the things annoying me in the back of my mind: I should be 2 slotting for accuracy, not needing to slot for endurance reduction at all.

Haha I actually recently stumbled upon this combo myself although I use /time for mostly utility and controlling hard targets right now (just got him to lvl 29). My little magic android boy is like a ranged stalker, obliterating +3 bosses on teams and making a joke of groups when solo with all the extra knockdown. Going into a bank mission with an AV in it, it was almost like fighting a regular boss except she hit a lot harder with her ice storm. I only wish I could have a megaman arm cannon for the animations.

I was making a comparison to sets that are fast and have extra mitigation utility. I'm trying to find why Savage doesn't have them. That is why I made this thread, I'm trying to figure out what niche the set fits into (not talking about concept-wise) and how the set stands out. I'm not here trying to shit on your heroes, I'm asking if the set can be improved lol Also, I haven't played Rad melee but from looking at the set, it's gimmick seems to be spreading single target damage into multi-target damage. That's probably why the attacks are balanced to be slower. On comparison to Fire melee, another set whose gimmick is DoT and has no mitigation, is also one of the most offensive sets, deals fire typed damage and isn't slowed down. Would you say Savage is on par with Fire melee in the DPS side? Why not? That was one of my initial observations of the set in that Blood Frenzy gives you minor endurance and recharge bonuses. My observation comes from using a set that has no endurance management early on (Electric Armor) and has a need to reduce endurance costs. I'd say take a look at the build I posted and tell me what is wrong. I'm saying that even with Savage's Blood Frenzy discounting my endurance and stacking the 20% recharge bonus with the 20% recharge bonus of Lightning Reflexes, I still had management issues killing resistant foes without running out of END first and against larger sets of mobs, I wasn't killing before they chipped a chunk of my health off. In many situations, expending blood frenzy felt harmful for lack of return and if you become exhausted, you are required to manage it either via Blood Thirst or just not utilize max blood stacks in the first place. My criticism of that particular mechanic is, is it a feature you're meant to capitalize on (think Radiation Melee's contamination gimmick) or a limiting factor to balance a strong boon the set has (think Titan Weapons' momentum)? Or is it neither? Both? Am I using the mechanic wrong? That's the nature of the powerset system though (talking about how the character will eventually work out), but I'm specifically looking for tricks and tips for the set, it's areas of expertise, what to pair it with and what to not pair it with, or how to make the set better. For example, Dark melee: it's niche is being mainly a damage type that isn't commonly resisted and doesn't have many AoEs but it can bolster your attack to a ridiculous degree via Soul Drain and it's single target damage is fast and effective. Couple it with a defense set and the heal will make it easier when you take shots and paired with a resist set, Touch of Fear and the set's -ToHit can make you near untouchable to a few targets. I'm here to state my experiences that the endurance discount of Savage is moderately small whose impact is more felt when you use up your blood frenzy rather than when you are rocking with max stacks. The recharge bonus I could see being useful for clicky armor sets though...still doesn't make up for the fact that the exhaustion mechanic is bad and doesn't pay off for the effects you gain from using the skills. lol I'm not looking for a specific result. I'm asking what sells this set. Why would you pick this set instead of Claws? What does this set do that other sets don't or not as well? What tradeoffs does this set make to do what it does? You tell me. Do you feel the set does good damage? How useful has the set's utility been to you? As the title says, I've come into the thread with the experience that the set is meh. I had to shelve the guy because he's a drag to play and went back to playing my Elec/Bio Stalker. In the back of my head, I have to wonder if Savage Leap is just so good that it makes the set that fun to play. That's why I'm asking on the forums because just looking at it, Savage Leap looks pretty meh still. The only boon so far that has shined through is the skill animations look nice. Also, Bio armor is...just ridiculous lol. It's one power alone (Boundless Energy) makes it so I can get away with no endurance slotting and shifting back into efficiency mode, I can practically never run out of endurance. As a stalker, starting with Assassin's Strike in offensive mode, finishing my alpha strike then swapping to efficiency mode + DNA siphon...but Electric Melee is also rather ridiculous on Stalker...the most powerful version of the set across all melee. So many tricks you can do with that set...

It's probably that Bio Armor is rather overtuned. I'm playing Bio on my Stalker and he's comparatively much easier to run due to Efficient Adaptation mode and Boundless Energy (Stalker version of Inexhaustible) making END and HP management less of a hassle. It's AoE heal is rather broken for how little slotting it needs too. The lack of capability of the primary set comes with it's lack of mitigation and lack of punch. Like I said, sets like Martial Arts or Claws has quite a bit of CC and Claws even has range. I can actually drain a foe's END with a little slotting of Electric Melee meaning bulky bosses tend to end up limp and helpless not to mention its AoE and CC. Like I said, Savage only has Viscious Slash and it's only a chance of knockdown. I haven't gotten Savage Leap yet so maybe the damage is made up there but still no mitigation. It's also possible that powers are bugged on Brute. Bleeds are random and I haven't done any sort of testing or anything but I'm betting that with Critical Hits, the amount of extra damage might be calculated using the max possible damage value rather than a random roll. It's also possible that Savage Melee is more of a Rogue type set (just without the cool tools) and unfit for the more Center Stage style that Tanker or Brute need. I'd like to hear more: statements of what the set does well, the kinds of missions you take, criticisms or expectations or perhaps dialog on some of the ideas in my previous post. EDIT: Also, no the attacks aren't faster than Claws. I haven't looked at the activations but I'm willing to bet Savage is slower than Dark, Claws and Street Justice. And those sets also have more mitigation and punch. EDIT2: Also also, I absolutely am annoyed the the speed of Blood Thirst's activation. It has to be THE slowest activating attack buff in a melee set for very little payoff.

Okay, so there's 1 person in agreement. While I can somewhat get over the lack of damage, I'm still wondering if maybe the skills are bugged. The base DoT effect seems to be 0-4 DoTs randomly with Hemorrhage doing 5 DoTs. With max blood frenzy, Hemorrhage does 6 DoTs and adds about 10ish damage (scaled to level 30) to each DoT and exhausts you. I want to say this set needs more than this. While max blood frenzy does grant 20% recharge and like 23% END discount, the exhaust mechanic takes away from the overall modest effect. They could probably stand to do one or a few things to add to the set: * Remove or reduce the exhaustion phase. It's currently like 12 seconds. Why not shorten it(4 seconds?) so you can actually use those skills that consume blood frenzy at their peak? * Increase the END discount per blood stack. Currently is 5% with a max of 23%. How about 8% per and maximum of 40% discount? * Hemorrhage needs some CC. A knockup looks perfect. Have it be a chance of knockup and a 100% chance when at max blood frenzy. * Can the rest of the attacks have an improved variation with higher stacks (the attacks that don't consume blood frenzy)? Like increase the amount of DoTs to 100% max so rather than randomly being 0-4 DoTs, it'll always be 4 DoTs when at max blood frenzy. * How about while bleeding (suffering DoTs from these attacks) resistance to lethal damage is reduced so stacking DoTs gets more effective and the faster attacks are more useful. * Vicious Slash needs 100% knockdown. * Hemorrhage needs better effects. Using it at max basically amounts to adding 2 DoTs... I think adding knockup to Hemorrhage, 100% knockdown on Vicious Slash and scale the DoTs with blood frenzy better would even out the set a lot. Would like a ToHit bonus when at max blood stacks too to help the whole "efficiency" angle the set seems to be targetting but that's probably asking too much. Something else I noticed, Blood Thirst lasts 15 seconds but only buffs ToHit by 10% and damage by 33%, adds enough blood frenzy stacks to get you to max (doesn't refresh old stacks) and removes the exhaustion debuff if you have it. Compared to Build up lasting 10 seconds and buffing ToHit by 20% and damage by 80%, I think Blood Thirst could also be improved. Maybe not reduce or remove the exhaustion duration but increase the duration of Blood Thirst to 20 seconds and add the effect that makes you immune to exhaustion for its duration.

Well the Defender version of Frostwork has a base value of 535 Max HP. So maybe split it so that it has a base value of +200 MaxHP and +300 Absorb (scaled down as appropriate for other ATs)? I still think a pure absorb shield is more interesting but I can see your point and this would work as a decent compromise. How about making it a buff that helps it behave like HP? Basically, it could increase your Max Absorb, add a bit of Absorb (maybe 25% of the value) and then slowly generate absorb over time up to that max. If slotted for heal, it could increase the % value of absorb it initially grants. Now it behaves like +Max HP, is now absorb, can be used to save someone and synergizes with other sources of absorb.

I've been having quite a time with this Brute and when I say that, I mean he's been a hassle to deal with...moreso than my Brutes in the past. Is it just me or is Savage Melee very meh? Considering the powerset's mechanic, I run out of endurance pretty quickly and it's only gotten slightly better as I've gotten more slot opportunities but up to the current level (lvl 30), there's been ups and downs and now I'm on a downturn because the damage output just hasn't gotten there. The other side might be the secondary I picked with it, Electric Armor. It's done me no favors and was a real drag until 28 when I got the heal. It also eats up nearly all my Endurance despite the little discount I get from the primary. I'm going to respec him soon to get rid of the old IOs I have on him to slot new stuff but just wanted to hear the consensus of the set. Here's a quick screenie of the build: NOTE: the last enhancement on Rending Flurry is Acc/End, and Engergize is slotted Heal, Heal/Rech, Absorb proc because I got the recipe as a drop recently. I've run Electric Armor before and it is a bit of a drag until you get the heal and drain but Savage Melee just doesn't have the tools, it seems, to smooth out the early game. Something like the swords have +def to give you more layered mitigation, dark melee has a heal/-ToHit, claws or martial arts has knockdown and/or stuns, I even find electric melee can eventually drain a target's endurance to slow their damage down...Savage only has the 1 chance of knockdown and Hemorrhage seems quite underwhelming at moderate fury. What say you?

I think making/playing a villain is the easiest and simplest type of character to play as. Not because I'm a villain or evil person but because, when put into perspective, a villainous mindset is merely a self-centered/self-interested person which is practically 90% of the population when you stop and think. I mean, would you sacrifice your life or well being to save the life of your children? Yes, most likely. How about the children of a complete stranger? Possibly, to uphold your principles. How about some random douche that likely could let you rot if the circumstances were flipped? What I'm getting at is it's not the villains that are difficult to rationalize or step into their shoes, it's the heroes with the abnormal principles, ideals and reactions to situations. If it weren't the case, we wouldn't celebrate heroic deeds like we do (if everyone is saving orphaned midgets from a burning building on every other Tuesday, less people would care). Another reason I think players have a difficult time playing a villain is because they get into the mindset of "I have to be the biggest, baddest guy on the block and have aspirations to rule the world!". But ruling the world is an empty gesture to begin with. Players overlook the simplest of motivations that drive people to act: things like overthrowing a corrupt system or the age old adage of an eye for an eye. Admiring a charismatic individual who one feels upholds ideals you agree with. When playing a villain, it's easy to follow a story and get into the mindset of my character and "rewrite" the responses my character has to certain sets of stories. It's too easy. Playing a hero is merely popular but more difficult because heroes are meant to share the same idealistic principles, i.e. they are a collective. Villains are meant to be individualistic so forming a narrative consideration for story events is actually easier. But that's just my take. I'm usually pretty contrarian.

The irony is you're complaining about someone else complaining about the game so technically you're complaining about the game too (its community). I will say it put a smile on my face because i know where you're coming from and I am not guiltily of any of the offenses you described. I haven't even done DFB yet on any of my characters. Most of my early levels is just solo until about 12.

The answer is yes. Villain side, any missions that need you to go to fight certain mobs will be in that zone not to mention the missions are more likely to be in the zone of the contact. Having made my first hero since I got back, I am reminded of the annoyance of the contacts hero-side giving you missions several zones elsewhere or kill mob objectives in an isolated space in another zone or to speak with a contact halfway across the city. When this happens villain side, it's not as often and the amount of zones to traverse across is less. Players will tell you to use various teleport methods to get around quicker but still, it's only a bandaid on a bleeding wound vs villain-side being merely a bruise. How many Scrappers do you have? How many Tankers do you have? If Scrap>Tank, make a Tank. If Tank>Scrap, make a Scrap.

You could take sands of mu, shadow maul and flurry and play as Star Platinum instead.

So when you could be doing damage to high threat targets, you should confuse targets instead? I still see nothing but fail in this logic. Not saying your logic is failed, saying to sit around and confuse one target while you should be fighting another, is failed. Since you're not godmode, you can't be doing damage to all high threat targets all at once especially as a stalker. Stalkers need tools for dealing with threats as much as a Blaster and not all those tools come in the form of damage. That's glasscannon101...although stalkers aren't quite glass cannons which is why their supplemental tools are limited. But anyway, I could find a lot of uses for a mag 3 confusions on a Stalker. Heck, if they replaced Placate with "mag 3 confuse", I bet you you'd get more mileage out of your ability to handle single target threats. The prospect of knowing your enemies and what they'll throw at you thus throwing their own power back in their face is kinda the mantra of a glasscannon. If you don't know your enemy, prepare to be surprised... I dunno man, you really think there's a good use for Flurry? I love stacking it with Sands of Mu... It's FUN! Remember the old Storm Kick animation? Is that still in the code?

That's the kind of stuff I'm talkin' about. Tips, tricks, costumes and combos of them all + power customization to really sell a concept or accidents that look weird that might be useful for other concepts. I wish I had more but maybe something will jar my memory.

Do a cost/benefit analysis. How often do you find yourself playing end-game? How often do you make alts? How often are you exemplared? How much inf do you have? I've always found myself planning these modest yet grandiose max level builds for characters yet find out I tend to spend too much time playing alts. I'd powerlevel to mid-game then play normal to get popular loot to sell, save my inf, and when I get to max, have a coffer of spoils to start the process of min/maxing...but after getting close to max, I'd roll another alt and start the process again. Since I started homecoming, I've revised my strategy and start slotting 25 set IOs primarily because of the situation with the last above question: how much inf do you have? On my 3 alts so far, they've each gotten several drops in succession that netted around 4-6mil inf each. Rather than sit on the inf, I want to have fun with sets early and I can unslot them later to sell if I want. tl;dr: I'd say it depends how you play...

Is it a nature controller? Which powers do you use to pull off the swamp/mud look best?