DeformedBrit

Well yeah it pretty much is guaranteed to hit because follow up gives you a tohit bonus as well. Even then, in the unlikely event you do miss, the recharge is so low it doesn't matter. So what's the explanation then? Surely this is OP as it has no drawbacks? Please enlighten me as to why this is fine and Rage has 3 debuffs. Also you still haven't answered as to why the no damage for 10 seconds and endurance crash isn't enough of a penalty.

Okay here's some maths, rage crash causes the character to lose 20% of their defence across the board. Assuming most level 50 tankers/brutes are defence capped that means they will lose 44% of their defence for 10 seconds every time the power crashes. I'm sure even you can understand 44% is a large number for a penalty that hits as often as rage crash does. Not only do they lose the defence but they do next to no damage and also lose a portion of their endurance. The latter two are acceptable debuffs, they hit each defensive set equally. Oh grow up. Yes and the penalty was not doing damage for 10 seconds and losing endurance. Though okay, so whats the penalty for having permanent follow up double stacked, which is essentially a rage. You're talking out of your arse. Also Stalkers have ATO's which fully recharge their build up power too. Make rage unstackable for all I care and remove the penalties so it's the same as follow up then If we are going off other sets. Nope. If you take the time to read the thread you'd understand he's not the only one. Even then there are people who can't be bothered to write on forums to complain about it.

I'm not saying EM isn't in need of looking into, what I'm saying is, that belongs in its own thread. I could just say what you've been saying for the past so many posts in regards to EM "pick something else not all sets are good" but that's not a solution is it?

Ok then let's have a vote what's worse EM or Trick Arrow, or let's not because it's bloody irrelevant to the issue we are trying to address in this thread.

It's 17 pages because you go in a circular argument. Your whole conclusion so far is basically "some sets work better than others". Yet you go on to say Energy Melee is unplayable and doesn't work with any set. A "GROSS" exaggeration on your behalf one could say because EM doesn't have any debuffs like SS. I can't tell if you are being serious anymore because you just contradict yourself.

Shield??? 3 sets which are for sure ruined by the effect, 4 if you include WP. Thats 35% of all the defensive sets gimped by the debuff. I don't know enough about the new sets (bio, rad) to know how it affects them.. ^ Yes also Invuln so that's more like 45% of tanks sets severely effected by the drop in defence.

10 seconds every 60 seconds, yeah.

Because it goes beyond that. It works against it completely. Not just a small amount, nearly half of your defence drops, frequently. It's broken and works against the point of being a tank in the first place.

Clearly a lot of people think Rage isn't working or this wouldn't be 16 pages long. I don't know why you are adamantly against removing -defence when it comes with other penalties ANYWAY. At least the other penalties associated with rage effect all other defensive sets the same way. Slapping on a -def debuff "for the lols" doesn't make sense. Arguing to keep it put because you think it would be so "OP" otherwise is stupid. Literally no other power in the game can wreck your entire gameplay the way Rage does now. You can't do damage for 10 seconds and lose 20 endurance which you never know may result in your toggles dropping if you're unlucky. Isn't this enough of a penalty for a tanker and brute exclusive set? We have Illusion/Rads soloing GM's, Blasters capabale of soloing +4x8 farms, Stalkers constantly having their build up recharged and no longer needing stealth. Why are you drawing the line on Rage? Honestly to me it sounds like you'd be better off on a different server, maybe you should join a pre IO server? Look, If you want a harder experience, play on higher difficulty settings, play only using SO's. Play using only brawl for all I care but don't claim having a defense debuff on a power makes the game more fun because it's annoying to deal with. Annoying doesn't translate to challenging and therefore fun. You have all the tools to make the game as difficult as you want it to be. Stop pissing on everyone's bonfire that just want a more fluid experience with a power that for the longest time, hasn't worked the way it's currently working regardless of intention or not.

I honestly don't think it was "way harder" it was just different. Back in the days of unlimited aggro and fire tankers burning everything to a crisp lol. I'm still having fun just not with SS, which is a shame because it's a very iconic set of the super hero genre. For sure Rage is a powerful buff, but it's a set limited to tankers and brutes. Other set's don't need it as their kits tend to be balanced outside of their buffs. Though for an example claws is very strong with follow up, you easily meet that bonus with a duration of 10 seconds and recharge can be reduced to 3 and a half seconds. No -defence or damage reduction and end drain there...

Pre IO era is irrelevant, that's not the game anymore. The game has changed, you can't balance around obsolete content, you need to balance around current content. The current content is IO's and set bonuses. Maybe it made everything too powerful, I don't disagree but it gave build customisation a lot more depth, when it used to just be slot two accuracy, damage, end reducs/recharge on a power. In current high end content, having your defence dropped by half every minute is a big deal. It's stupid. What other power in a set screws you over so much so frequently to the point rage does?

I've benched my SD & SS character until it gets fixed. Completely ruins the flow, better off going with stone melee, the only thing that was good about SS was Rage, Footstomp and Knockout blow. Now there's only 2 good powers in this heavily resisted set and the set feels useless without rage. Rage needs changing, plenty of good compromises in this thread. Losing half of your defence every minute is bad design regardless of how "good" rage is. The guy above saying about balancing around SO's is a joke, they have not been relevant for a long time even before the closure of the game and shouldn't be used when defending the way powers should work. At the end of the day this is a casual super hero MMO. The point is to be powerful, my blasters can tank tank alpha hits as well as a tank these days for god's sake. There's no harm in making a set fun again (probably the most iconic set thematically speaking) and have it be powerful. Otherwise it will go the way of regeneration and become obsolete.