Sovera

I don't even need to go +5. My Bio Tanker handled everything well during its solo trip up to Manticore's TF and then the debuffs folded it like wet tissue,

Crikey, we had reported it and it got a nod from a dev. Didn't think it had made it to OB and didn't think to check. Would explain why my Sentinel was hit despite the AT buffs.

I've mentioned this before. The pacing of the sets could use work. Do we *really* need 4 ST attacks by level 8? Sets like Fire Melee have to wait until 16 for their first AoE (fine if teaming, but screwing up soloers). SS *still* has to wait to 18 for UM so Handclap turns into an AoE, another set with 4 ST attacks by level 8. Swap KO Blow to 18, give Rage at 8.

The Tanker is, IMO, the least affected by this. Depending on the armor I often have to take slots out to not go past 90%, and see *so* many people posting builds where they ignore the ATO and have over 100% resistances. Simply build to 110% and the nerf to resistances is gone. Build to 55% defenses and it's gone. On a Brutes, the new buffs make this easier than before though they will lag behind due to not having the ATO providing a hefty 15%-21% to all resistances (but Brutes are the oens who should least care about SS since Fury and Rage don't mingle well). They are 2-3% behind Tankers otherwise, or end with the same numbers. My Brute and Tanker Stone Armor in Open Beta both end with 45% without Weave and 50% with. And that's with heavily procced attacks so all attacks can push that further, like slotting five Blistering Cold which by itself would make the S/L drop gone on that build. Every Rage drop also is *not* a death sentence. Most of the time it is inconsequential. Some of the times it drops at a bad moment and we're surrounded, but not girding our loins and stand there while taking damage fixes most problems. Or using an inspiration, or dropping Barrier. I do agree SS is not that much of a monster to have to deal with this. On the other hand double stack Rage is. And when the devs tried to 'nerf' it to not stack the forums went in flames with dozen pages of teeth gnashing and pitchforks until they noped the fuck out of nopesville. And *that* would have been the best fix because until it happens the set can't be buffed meaningfully because it all revolves around whatever they do will be magnified by double stacks of succulent Rage. Unleashed Might is elegant. Now they can buff that power alone in the future, or during this open beta, and buff the whole set without having to deal with the headache of the magnifying effect of Rage stacks.

Well, the intent is making it less good so people don't take it. Bit like WoW devs nerfing set bonuses when a new mediocre set bonus is released. Mediocre enough that even the ilevel increase is not enough to make people move over. So, the anterior set bonus is nerfed to force them to move. In that aspect it worked. Despite these AT buffs that increase the AT's defensive values I logged in to my Water/Bio Sent having lost 4% to both res and defense. So I'm Mids-ing a Water/Stone now. Objective accomplished 😄

After some testing of numbers on the server: * Brutes can now reach 90%/45% much more easily and not have to rely on outside sources. * A Stone Armor at level 12 will have a difference of 1% from Tanker to Brute and at max level there is no need to sacrifice attack slotting to reach capped values as long as some IO ingenuity is used. * Tanker remains sturdier with a bit more HP, 'free' 15% all res from the ATO, and slightly better defensive values. But since we have caps and not much point of going further than them this advantage is thin. Brutes can rejoice as the sturdiness gap has been narrowed while still having the damage advantage over their cousins. Weave off: Weave on and Earth's Embrace used: The defense values are the same my Stone Armor Tanker has, with better E/N resistances (62%-ish instead of 42%). Build used (the numbers won't match until Mids updates): Brute (Spines - Stone Armor).mbd

Ran several tests on Spines and it looks really nice. In terms of pylons it's down to around 2:10 (Spines/Stone Brute, with a -res proc in Ripper) over multiple tests though I will once again point out that the DoT extra ticks did not budge that time which seems odd as some attacks like Ripper had a 268% DoT damage increase. * Leveling with a fast animating PbAoE that comes up in 5-6 seconds even at level two, with SOs, feels *great*. I can only wish every set had this option and cones be abandoned. * The Ripper improvements allow to use it for ST and AoE allowing me to skimp on Throw Spines. Yes, blasphemy, I know, but Stone is power hungry and with Spine Burst recharging in 3 seconds and Ripper hitting near, or slightly more, than Total Focus but in a 90% AoE arc (once the lenghty DoTs tick down) means Ripper + Spine Burst + Impale (with the occasional Lunge for extra poison) can be chained, and then double damage auras. * Not ran myself, so a grain of salt, but a friend tried a couple iterations of Brute Spines (with Sonic Armor and Fire Armor) and says it felt slower than just Fire Melee. Probably due to lethal and toxic being more resisted in the end game. * The 15% Poison from Lunge is poison chance, not poison damage. It makes Spines' DoTs go from 80% chance where there is a 20% change the DoT is interrupted if it fails once, to 95% chance of ticking to the end. The build I was using. Remember Mids hasn't been updated. With the improvements to Brutes' defensive values it is nearly at 45% without Weave. Could be minimally tweaked further for the last 1%-ish but I'd want an updated Mids to do those granular tweaks. Brute (Spines - Stone Armor).mbd

On the upside the meter doesn't run down like a Brute's Fury, so after the initial combat it is always up.

Been running some pylon tests so I'll save the trouble for others: over multiple pylons using or saving Opportunity made no difference for single target damage. Using each time Vuln dropped from the target or just mashing buttons gave the same times with literally 5-6 seconds apart. Untested, but from a mix of common sense and gut feels: * Since the crits apply to AoEs the AT gets a boost (40% chance of a 40% crit is abouts 16% extra damage) for solo or fast teams. No point fussing about Vuln if everything is melting well. If they are not then Vuln multiplied by 8 is going to beat the 16% of hoarding it. * Nukes don't get crits so using Vulnerability (which then chains to a lesser extent surrounding foes) on a boss before unleashing the nuke might be mathematically better(?) but since everything else crits then I wouldn't use Vuln again as each use cuts 20% crit chance off. * The difference between using and not using, or trying to use min-max as above is probably going to be so minimal if actually looking at mission completion times that a Sentinel can not use it and not be missing out and still come out ahead with these changes. Chalk another boost for the ailing AT. * The ATO that increases the meter doesn't do enough. * Simple test: used Vuln, kept attacking, Vuln ran out. Used a second time, kept attacking. Vuln ends. Not enough meter to use a third time. * This scenario applies with and without the ATO slotted into ST attacks. On a spreadsheet the ATO will probably save X seconds before a new charge of Vuln is up, but the cost of slotting a set without damage procs should(?) cost more than getting Vuln sooner, especially with this change that rewards a full bar at all times.

No, but, if having the names/bars enabled then unless if fighting +5 then the boss will always be a different color (even mobs = all white, lieuts yellow, boss orange, etc).

Unrelated to the issue at hand, but toggling on names and HP bars (this can be macroed on and off) allows to spot bosses at a glance rather than relying on tabbing.

This was what helped me with Attune. I complained about the muscles memory too and pressing it as if it was an attack when it's a toggle. But, like you, I have a second row where my buffs go like Build-up. So I placed it there and it sank into my mind it was a buff rather than an attack which cut down on muscle memory.

Scrappers and Stalkers do seem to be getting good numbers. I haven't seen (or missed) Brute testing. But yes, I predicted Attune being used like that in the very first iteration in CB. For Attune to be more casually used it would/will require to do good upfront damage (even if the nature of the quick recharge means no good proccing) since then it is not like dropping a Radiation toggle but dropping an attack that chunks half (?) a minion's HP, which then *never* feels useless to put on any target. As it is, on a Brute, the last iteration I tested had it do something like 30-40 upfront damage.

Go easy on the forum pvp, Shin. But yes, numbers might be more helpful. Personally my Brutes have been getting bad pylon times (I did not test the latest iteration). We're talking between 2.55 to 3:14 while procced to the gills to push the envelope. To put it in perspective other tests ran at the time with the same setup were getting 2:10. 2:10, for my Brutes, is darn good. 3 minutes is mediocre. Again, not tested on the newest iteration.

I confess it didn't look bad to me either, but I saw a snipe so that must be a Scrapper. As someone who usually plods along with Tankers whittling mobs down it look good enough, but for a Scrapper I imagine not.

There have been several iterations of the power so far. Do these procs activate on anything but the initial application? Or a chance per DoT? If it's just the initial application and considering it's only used once per enemy it looked like a good place to mule an unimportant ATO.

I see mentions of 'stll have to take both T1 and T2'. Unless that feedback is old, or I misunderstood something, Attune has been reworked to give something to *all* powers of the set and is no longer linked to just the first two powers. Please re-read the newest patch notes.

This is good feedback as well. 'Sonic' melee with hand motions doesn't fit. It might if we change it to 'Vibrations' (we do have a couple iconic 'vibration' based characters and they did their thing with hand/arm motions). But those who did did not scream at their characters because, well, vibrations. Then we have the iconic sound characters from comics and their thing is screaming at enemies, not do arm motions. This mix of both doesn't solidify the theme. My own choice on this would be having two sets of animations, one with arms, one screaming, even if there is only so many ways to scream at someone. At this point in time the set doesn't scream (heh) Sonic to me and could just as easily be moved to Vibration. Even the resonance effect is nothing more than vibration (sound is a vibration) so the Attune idea could stay as is, and other than some roleplay name changes (Migraines wouldn't even need to be changed). The good thing is that Vibration *could* let characters scream (again, sound is a vibration), but Sonic waves from hand thrust is harder to match.

Preaching to the choir, bro.

Though it feels like regression I'm not sure if Attune should not revert to being the T1. Yes, for approximately 30 seconds if someone takes Attune first they will have a toggle instead of an attack, but using Brawl/origin power and 30 seconds later of hitting white mobs with 100% XP on and they are level 2. This is not hyperbole, I can replicate this if needed. This would *still* mean taking the T1 and T2, but not a T3 as well. (I've no idea what the new T3 would be). Gimmick would still be in place. T2 would empower the T1 (Attune), maybe the other powers would empower it as well. I know this approach has been tried but the set has been iterated since.

Yes, we've had this talk. The devs want to try something new, Let them cook. If they could improve the numbers a bit for the T1 T2 play the set's nearly there in terms of damage since I was getting three minutes on a pylon with no snipes or whatever. 30 seconds off and it would be about there, IMO.

Accuracy matters for both upfront and each DoT's tick, damage increases the DoT's damage, and encurance some since it's a toggle. Recharge is the only thing not needed since it recharges in 2 seconds. If you find it behaves differently please report to the devs.

I see a distinct lack of answers. Did you manage to figure things out?

I've been mentioning this as well. Stalkers/Scrappers have been getting good numbers (IMO, under 1:30) with pylons, but Brutes have been steady at 3 minutes on pylons. Which could just be my crummy builds too. I've tried taking the T1 and the T2, procbombing both, then Attune and Earsplitter. I've tried taking the T2, and Sandman's Whisper, proccing both, then Attune and Earsplitter. All 3 minutes with his version a good 20 second slower (3:13 where the above got 2:55 on average). Maybe taking all five ST powers is required so that Attune is booming with both T1 and T2 and then using Sandman's and Earsplitter, but I can't fit five ST attacks, nor do I even want to.

Attune is annoying to reapply but it does do upfront damage (not a lot though, around 40 damage as a level 50). The upfront damage does compensate for the reapplying since it is the same as just hitting the target, and then each subsequent hit is boosting the DoT. The problem with DoTs is the quick nature of the game. We rarely go into a group of enemies and take more than 30 seconds to lay them all down between BUs and AoEs. So, outside of pylons where we place the toggle once and don't need to re-apply the quick nature means having to reapply all the time on low HP enemies like anything under a boss. Perhaps to make it more interesting the upfront damage needs to be increased and make it more of an attack. That said in regular play we usually focus on a boss while AoEing the rest so I can see how Attuning the boss will be something done once or twice per group rather than picking one minion at a time to re-apply. But I had already predicted in CB that in a team setting the quick nature of the game will probably have people not fussing with Attune. Which is... okay, I guess? We don't have damage meters, and if the mobs are dying that fast then what are we complaining about? But as it is right now, soloing on a Brute, the damage feels great while leveling but falls off at max level. On a Brute, I insist. Stalkers have had some really good pylon times. But I don't find 3 minutes, with procbombs, to be decent, and I say this as someone who doesn't play with Glooms and such. All my times tend to be with characters who only use the skills in their power sets so that's what I'm comparing with.