Sovera

For that Stone/MA?

I could mimic your current build and throw it against a pylon and then do the same with the Soaring Dragon/Golden Dragonfly variant but I'm coming to terms that you would disregard the results under some reason or another. Damage is damage, whether it comes from procs or from anything else. If you want to see the proc chance of things just hover over the damage and the proc chance will be shown. I'm not quite sure why you're explaining to me, of all people, how you think that procs work or why they are 'bad', but to add the 'shield proc' is mostly useless and it is there to reap the fat 6% resistances to E/N. Both S/L and E/N are the major forms of damage in this game and what is usually built for. Fire and Cold, Toxic and Psi, are rarer and usually come in small doses where we can quickly defeat the mob that is doing it. I sacrificed another 3% E/N in Focused Accuracy to finish pushing S/L a little bit higher but mirroring Build-up's slotting would have pushed E/N resistances to 50%, which in turn having the about-ish 18% from two stacks of the ATO and Barrier would have pushed to 68%. Getting better defenses/resistances beats the loss of the 6 HPS of regen, IMO. Just ask any Regeneration player how well things work in being a bag of HP and regen when damage comes in hot. In closing I'm not sure why you'd be farming in AE or farming roleplayers in Pocket D or why asking for a critique and then explain why your choices are better when critiqued, but it's best to build for the times when there are no buffers in a team or buffers of the wrong sort. As you've noticed in a team it doesn't matter while doing normal content. A single person can already solo that normal content so when there are 8 present it's simply overkill and everything melts in five or six seconds and there is no need to overthink it. Your build WILL do all content just fine in a team and even in solo, so under that prism there is no need to change a single bit of even the first one. Carry on having fun, that's all we can ask for.

I'm a big fan of Fly and have zero builds without it so I read you. The infiltration/GI suggestion swap for Combat Jumping remains (I use CJ just for the 2-3% and the LotG slot). I was offering alternatives for Infiltration since it's a travel power that does stealth and I thought this angle played into your character's theme. There is no reason not to to use Build-up though. You see a pack of enemies and prepare to dive in? Click on it. Hasten you control + left click and it sets that on auto to never be thought about again until the heat death of the universe. Regardless it's your build so surely do as you will. I had not seen in the first post you didn't want changes made to the build but I do have some experience with the game and can say you should at least try the swap to Hasten and Soaring Dragon + Golden Dragonfly. You CAN do the whole game on a T1 and a T2 and I have done such builds, but only when the higher tier skills were crap (looking atcha, Kinetic Melee and Savage Melee). But in Katana's case you got two good, strong skills at your disposal. Simply looking at the numbers DA (95 damage with 1.6 animation), SD (265 damage with 1.6 animation), and GD (329 damage with 2 second animation will do 689 in 5.2 seconds. You current build does Sting of the Wasp (125 damage in 1.32), Gambler's Cut (91 damage in 1 second) and Divine Avalanche (91 damage in 1.6) for 307 damage in 3.9 seconds. The rotation with SD and GD will do approximately 3975 damage over 30 seconds. Your rotation would do approximately 2361.6 damage over 30 seconds. Of course I'm assuming you're not using Flashing Steel since you have a full rotation without it but it could probably replace one of the weaker skills like Gambler's Cut albeit for minimal gains. At minimal the damage will be much higher, but it is also very aesthetically pleasing since the combo is one of the best looking ones COH has. Soaring Dragon tosses a mob in the air with a knock-up and Golden Dragonfly is us doing a little jump and swinging down doing a knock-down which sells the image of slamming the opponent to the ground. Just, please, do not trust the DPA of Mids, I can assure you the damage will skyrocket compared to what you have become used to even if it demands switching some slotting around. Respecs are cheap so if it's not to your tastes then respec back. There's also the public test server if you wish to try it without burning your free respecs or spending 2 million on a respec recipe. But this changes nothing that if you're enjoying the spec as it is and you're not dying then why change? Carry on, it's a game, we literally play these to have fun and if you're having fun isn't the goal achieved? Do try to squeeze in those three Eradications into Sweep and Lotus to finish softcapping your E/N. It will still melt under praetorian robots but better to start softcapped than 5-6% under. This is what I'd use in the end-game after amassing money: BingBongBang v3 - Tanker (Willpower - Katana).mbd At least it'll give some more slotting ideas and maybe you'll find something useful to adopt. Most of it can be adapted to be cheaper.

- The Gaussian proc should be in Build-up, which you did not take. Do take it as it as it is a nice boost at the start of the fight and when you can lay down a couple AoEs while under its influence to quickly put down the mass of minions that would debuff and/or hurt you. In Build-up the Gaussian is near assured to go off where in Focused Accuracy it will when it decides it will. By both having BU and the Gaussian you will start the fight with a 160% damage boost for the first 5 seconds, and 80% for the following 5 seconds. As the weakness of Willpower are debuffs it is good to think about bursting down enemies quickly. - Mids is currently not accounting for the +resistance proc from Might of the Tanker. Each stack gives 6.7% and two stacks are easy to keep up so in my opinion you should check your numbers and try to aim for roughly 13%. That means about 77% instead of 90% as you have right now. - Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly are your big hitters. You should really not try to play without them. That would be like playing Energy Melee but not using Energy Transfer and Total Focus. It does create a problem for leveling/exemplaring as you are forced to take the weaker powers to level, but once having access to those two you should respec and take them. Exemplaring will remain a problem though you are forced to take either Sting of the Wast or Gambler's Cut since the game forces you to, and then you can pair it with Flashing Steel and Divine Avalanche as a means to get across the leveling/exemplaring. - Your single-target rotation should be Divine Avalanche, Soaring Dragon, Golden Dragonfly, repeat. DA is less damage than Gambler's Cut but as Willpower you want that defense. - I'd slot three Eradication in Lotus Drop and Flashing steel to finish placing your Energy/Negative defenses to 45%. - I am not sure if you are sold on Grant Invisibility and Infiltration (if you are then carry on) but Combat Jumping is a 'free' 2-3% more defense and can replace Grant Invisibility as a LotG slot while also giving more mobility while in combat. - If you do take Build-up you'll want Hasten to help it, which means choosing whether to keep the Concealment pool or taking Hasten. You can mimic Infiltration with a stealth IO in Sprint and then using one of the START movement runs, be it Athletic Run (normal running animation) or Ninja run (acrobatic Naruto somersaulting run). With both Sprint and one of those runs you get a pretty decent movement speed to reach your next mission so it's something to consider. Do keep Infiltration if it's something you like though. - The IOs themselves are just a quibble but the build as it is will do its job, though if you are slotting purples I don't know why you wouldn't slot the Tanker's ATOs as well instead of just the procs. The cost shouldn't be something to deter you as money can be accrued without too much difficult. Then, if you decide to play a different Tanker, you can just transfer all those IOs to the new character, or, if you decided you hated Tankers and don't want to play one again, you can sell the IOs back to the auction house. Check the guide in my signature about how to store IOs for alts or making money.

I had/leveled one and it blitzed through stuff. I found at higher level without dedicating incarnates (Ageless/Cardiac) to it that the endurance bar could not keep up. But I am not sure that I would take it over Bio (on numbers alone) as the damage boost of Brimstone comes from the proc which is almost assuredly not working with the pseudo-pets, where Offensive Adaption's raw 25% damage boost should (don't quote me though) even if not its damage proc itself. Now, Stone is hardier than Stone if we just look at the defensive numbers, but, one thing not mentioned in this thread is that Storm makes a character pretty tanky as it has many debuffs and soft CCs. This means I could and did build the Sentinel to just 33% defense (on the Bio) and it was enough to breeze through as the Storm debuffs kept me safe and if things got heated then a single small inspiration would put it up to 45%. The real pudding test was playing in a DA arc, Artemis Knives as enemies, as a fresh level 50 with no incarnates, and fighting them as true +4. And they were harmless even as true +4, even at 33% defense, without even having to use inspirations. So with that said and Stone being hardier I think it will do just fine

Come to think of it I recently built a Stone/Martial Arts that leaned on Storm Kick. I remember it's not something that I considered as being better than regular builds but it allowed to mess with less traditional slotting. Strictly speaking I still think the same as there are too many mules and the recharge suffered from it. It was more of a proof of concept thing, but maybe there will be slotting ideas of interest. It still has 45% defense minimum (with Weave toggled on it goes to 50%, and with Barrier it goes to 55%) and 90% resistances with the 18.4% Warshades mentioned. I happen to disagree on their assessment of not taking Crane Kick as it provides soft CC and is a place for Force Feedback procs, but for this build in particular it's true that the only two things recharge helps is Hasten and Focus Chi. Tanker (Stone Armor - MA).mbd A less proof-of-concept build ought to lean on Storm Kick as an extra buffer instead. Super Reflexes might be the king of defense debuff resistance, but having 65% defense to all would means a looooot of whittling to reach cascading defense failures.

Look at other people's builds and see how they did their build. If they happen to be the combo you were after then all the better. Posting your first draft of a build is also a good way to have the flaws pointed out so you'll know better for next time.

XP is literally endless. Staying for extra time in the mission only means delaying getting the mission reward. XP from mobs? There are mobs in the next mission that will give XP too.

Okay, I have a Fire/Claws in my signature (it's the Dragon one) if you want to take a look at some different slotting. Taking a look at your build you have lots of room for improvement, but first you need to think if the build is doing well for what you're using it. If yes then just continue using it as is. Things to consider though: - Follow-up is an attack. You want accuracy, damage and recharge. As it is right now it has an 85% chance to hit +3 enemies (not the worse, but it should be to 95%). The Gaussian proc in Focused Accuracy is misleading since it won't be up all the time. - Consume is for endurance and should be slotted with endurance IOs. The proc in the Might of the Tanker lasts 10 seconds but Consume recharges in one minute so it is better placed in an attack instead. - Focus is an attack as well and you want accuracy, damage, recharge, and if possible one Force Feedback proc in it for some extra recharge. - Shockwave will knock the enemies away which is pretty disruptive. Slot either an Overwhelming Force proc in it or a Sudden Acceleration. - You have aimed for a lot of Smash and Lethal (and some AoE) defenses, but there is no point in doing this. Either try to reach 33% S/L defenses so that a small purple makes it 45% (the softcap) or aim for 40% so that Barrier will put it at 45%. But there is zero point in chasing AoE defenses. - Your S/L resistances are grossly overcapped. 90% is the maximum. If you want to be super minmaxey you can account for two stacks of Might of the Tanker procs, then 5% from Barrier, which combined gives 18%. That means you can chase to reach 72% resistances instead of 96% as you have them now (that's 96% which would then have the 18% on top, but which would do nothing since 90% is the maximum anyway). Funny enough it means your Energy/Negative resistances are almost there. By toggling Tough off you're already down to 74% which is almost at that magic sweet spot but you can still shave off IO slots from the build and place them somewhere else that is lacking, like adding more slots to Focus for example. - Spring Attack can be a fun attack, but numerically it has some really bad numbers (check the recharge and damage compared to Burn and Spin).

Oh, hello again, Dian. It's helpful if you lean into defense. For all purposes it gives X defense though only in the aura's radius, so for all effects melee defense. SOs will increase that number for a little bit. You can test this by purchasing a Power Analyser from the START vendor and using it on a mob to check its attributes. As always debuffs work exceptionally better the lower level the enemies are and lose effectiveness as they become high level than the character.

As I mentioned a few posts back this is an undertaking and a half since there are 236 permutations possible. Brute is not just Brute, but 236 possible versions of Brute, on top of people building with SOs, building with IOs, building with IOs but also proc bombing. This adds even more permutations. And THEN it has to stay on its lane! Not too tanky, not too damagy. The community would have a nuclear meltdown over it but Brutes are and will always be such a pain to balance that the devs would help their future selves by removing the AT (and I say this as someone with more Brutes than Tankers). Anyone who wants to be tanky and AoEy plays a Tanker, anyone who wants to be a melee DPS plays a Scrapper. Anyone who wants a stealthy crits-on-demand-instead-of-random-crits plays a Stalker. Stalkers and Scrappers would still need to be balanced against each other but at least there would be but one knob to tinker with. Fortunately I can just have my popcorn and watch from the sidelines one way or the other. Edit: I do like the Fury mechanic more than the crits. Perhaps what Brutes need is to have their resistances/HP lowered to Scrapper/Stalker levels and then they are all three melee DPS. Again, only one knob to tweak with none of the 'but if we buff Brutes too much why would anyone play other melee ATs that do the same damage but are not as tanky?'. Then if the three are in the same damage range it becomes flavour. Random crits, crits on demand and stealth, no crits but ramping up damage.

I keep seeing suggestions to improve Brute damage when it comes to the ATO and this misses the target by a mile. The devs actually lowered the max damage of the Brutes, they don't want the AT to be doing more so suggestions to 'fix' the AT with more damage is not going to fly. Which unfortunately includes scaling crit chance (for the record I like it). As the half everything the AT is I'd like having an half strength IO duplicating the Tanker since they are a half tank AT. As it is they have too much work pushing their defensive numbers up. Tying it to Fury would be fun too in a does-not-feel-pain-of-so-furious-they-are. Scaling resists like the IO. Fury has been infantilized too much though to a point we reach max rage in seconds and it stays at maximum unless taking a break so it's no longer something to work at.

Not a complete tangent but I do remember commenting that people were doing the Trapdoor with the typical fireball complement, but then being honest (which is appreciated in all fairness) that they were eating yellows to combat the blindness from Arachnos, but I, who took Focused Accuracy to naturally not be blinded, was not eating reds to make up for my lack of fireballs. Either we were testing the builds or we were testing playing the mission which at that point inspirations were allowed, but in the name of fairness not damaging inspirations? I don't give much importance to the results from others since the Trapdoor's objective was testing builds which I did. I tested my builds. My best was a Fire/Rad Brute at 4:42. Out of ten tests eight were Brutes and two Tankers, and my Fire/MA Tanker, my baby, was solid at 6 minutes which made it 8th place. The first seven were all Brutes. The only thing worse was a Rad/Stone Brute at 6:13 and a Fire/Rad Tanker without Atom Smasher at 6:57.

*dusts the thread* Decided to add a 100% fresh start beginner friend immortal build (this time not just 'near immortal', we're going full on into it). This is 100% meant for new players who are 100% new so it will be overexplained trying to have no assumptions made that people know what is being talked about. With this we get this No need to spend 12 million to start immortal, and no need to spam inspirations until earning enough money either. Simply reach level 13 and from then put the difficulty at x8. ...well, wait until level 20 because that's when the first AoE comes along otherwise you're arresting things one by one. Or just play in a team and be the Tanker That Could as nothing is able to kill you at level 13. ...man this is a long way from when I started and as a Tanker I was constantly on the verge of death even at just x2. The first post has a lot of good information such as early money making and I suggest consulting it as I do not wish to duplicate the same content. The newcomer guide in my signature also has lots of tips including the possible ways to level in the game, how to pass your gear to your other alts, etc, so that too is recommended reading. For anyone already used to the game this is nothing new as the gimmicks involved are well known but to those new this is based on Martial Arts having +10% defense from Storm Kick and Stone Armor being a defensive juggernaut. Pairing both and then taking a 1k Amplifier allows to reach 45%, the defense softcap, with just two SOs in the defensive toggles. Location of the NPCs: The first post on this thread mentions what to get from the vendor but just to reiterate: 8 Amplifiers of each sort, 8 Double XP, Prestige Enhancements. Starting by the beginning this program is what we use to plan our builds: https://midsreborn.com/ Travel Powers: From 1 to 13: From 13 to 17: From 17 to 22: From 22 to 30: From 30 to 50: Final thoughts: playing like this is pretty painful. I could say it gives the wrong idea of the game but the truth is that this is the baseline of the game. But a week or two into the game and players are earning enough to move away from these painfully basic builds that make the game feel slow and anaemic. But hey, at least with this they are doing so pretty much immortal from very early on 🙂 If there is a desire for it I can turn this into a leveling build with IOs or even a final build.

WuTang passing it along. Not that long ago asking help and now helping others. As it should be!

Stone is what I'd consider the most immortality friendly of the bunch. I built a Stone/Fire as well (in my signature) and 55% defense (including to psi) with 81% resists across the board is a bit nuts. For example pairing Stone with Martial Arts. At minimum it would be 65% defenses instead. But that's way overkill. Instead it could free slotting to finish pushing resistances to 90% (or 85% and have Barrier do the last 5%) which should be plenty doable. Between the CC in Cobra Strike and Crane Kick and Dragon's Tail it would further push that survivability. Edit: Just as a thought exercise slapped together and not fine tuned. Not something I'd run since I'd prefer having the better recharge and be missing 9% off reaching the cap instead. But, considering two stacks of the ATO + 5% from Barrier makes 18.4% and that the defenses are at minimum 71.6% then 71.6 + 18.4% makes exactly 90% for 100% of the time while still having 45% defenses without Weave, 50% with Weave, and 55% with Barrier. Tanker (Stone Armor - MA).mbd

Yes. I'm just saying I do the same with both ATs. But I'm twinked out and know when to spring for an inspiration. The Tanker might not need it as often but they both follow the exact same difficulty growth.

I do that on a Brute similar as a Tanker to be fair. Though I also twink my builds while leveling. Either will start at 0x6 for Posi 1 at level 8 and then grow to +1x8 by Yin.

Without bankrolling every boost imaginable Tankers are not particularly slow up until facing an AV. In practical gameplay they make up for lower numbers by hitting more enemies. So win some and lose some. Up to level 20 the Brutes are much faster though.

Good answers in the thread but I feel that they missed the most important: get Mids, the planner program we all use for our builds. This allows to share builds and also see what numbers a build has to reach certain thresholds. At first glance your build has some glaring problems but this is normal if you're not yet used to the under-the-hood mechanics of the game. It's also easy to fix so don't be bothered by it. We all started there. But first get Mids: https://midsreborn.com/

Forum PvP is wild.

I don't actually advocate for the removal of the Brute because I don't think that the game is so serious it warrants it and neither does it have any DPS meters. We're not talking mythic raiding with every (very limited) class specs under scrutiny as literally hundreds of thousands of people put up their logs and constantly internecine fights about which class/spec is trash and should not be brought to a raid/M+. But even WoW devs have a hard time balancing a measly three specs per class. And then we have CoH with its 286 permutations on top of stuff like IOs. Heck, when was the last time IOs were balanced? Never? But overperforming trinkets or set bonuses in WoW get tweaked if they disturb the envisioned balance of the classes, it's not the class itself that gets balanced because of a certain interaction. I'd like to see the IO problem addressed before starting to mess with ATs, but Brutes, of all ATs, are the ones who are IMO the hardest to balance. We can argue Scrapper and Stalker are the same and it's about flavour since both are damage dealers but one plays with stealth and the other brawls. We can argue Defenders and Corruptors are about the same flavour as one gets their buffs sooner or the other gets their attacker sooner. But the Brute needs to juggle being a damage dealer with being a tank and it either disturbs the damage dealers or disturbs the tanks. Not an easy balancing act and I don't envy the devs. But I still like my Brutes and have more of them than I have Tankers.

At the risk of being chased after with torches and pitchforks the Brute has no real place in the game and for everyone's peace of mind ought to be deleted (of course it would never happen). If anything it existing is just an headache for all involved and foremost the devs. We have clear roles: Tanker tanks, less damage, sturdiest of the bunch, can have an AoE niche but it is hindered by doing less damage. Scrapper is the melee role. Brawls alongside the Tanker but is squishier (though this is debatable in the world where IOs exist). AoEs are smaller but also hit harder and overall will obliterate with crits. Things get iffier once we bring up Stalkers since they lost their backstab identity and turned into brawlers like Scrappers who also have crit mechanics making it harder to separate both. And then there's the Brute who is a bruiser. It must be less tanky than a Tanker or why bring a Tanker, and less damaging than a Scrapper/Stalker or why bring a Scrapper/Stalker, Now good luck achieving this delicate balance in a game that: A) has 286 possible permutations for the AT (if my math does not fail me with 22 primaries and 13 secondaries), and B) has IOs and damage procs. Even with the Tanker example people are not praising the output of Ice Armor paired with Ice Melee but talking of Rad Armor paired with Super Strength.

Well, it's moot. I agree that the testing has been done and Tankers are ahead. I just don't think the average player is using 4-6 procs per attack and relying on inspirations/incarnates to go through their whole gameplay session. Doing it for one mission for 'testing', sure, but not a couple of hours and constantly juggling stuff. But that's all subjective. Maybe all players are. Unfortunately until procs are touched there is no balance to be found since the game is 'not balanced around IOs' which allows the 10% to do silly things destabilizing the ecosystem.

Play what ever you like. You're in a blessed moment where every one of those ATs is viable instead of one of them being so bad that only hardcore RPers would pick it up (your day will come, kheldians!). I like Tankers because I like feeling like a super hero early in the game. That means going 0x6 by level 10 and +1x8 by level 20. But I also peak early and my sturdiness lets me walk all over mobs but my damage does not significantly improve But to answer the question I'm currently chatting with someone who dislikes how braindead Tankers are and how they are never in any danger. I keep pushing him to try Brute since he wants to work for it and it seems smarter to push the envelope on a Brute than to purposefully nerf their Tanker build to inject some variety. Others have already chimed in but I'll add my own two bits: - If you like Rad and Dark then consider Fire as well. My best Brute both in ST and AoE clearing was a Claws/Fire. Yes, the mini nukes of Rad are great, and yes, ultimately thanks to them Rad is actually better than Fire in AoE despite having Burn. But Rad will do little to improve ST damage where Fire Armor will, just like Bio is good for ST damage but Fire is better for AoE. So we can say Fire is more balanced helping both ST and AoE instead of just doing one of those. - Don't poopoo on defensive armors too much. I don't know what builds you're playing to say much about them but stuff like Stone Armor is next gen and it also comes with a healthy amount of resists. Now, it is a lot easier to build defense on a Tanker which can lead to the silliness of the (near) immortal build in my signature by level 13, but with propping up from IOs it will get there. Ultimately my opinion is that defense is better than resist for 90% of the game up until meeting mobs that bypass armor. But they are not THAT common. In the meanwhile resist based armors have a harder time leveling since they depend on their heals who are either slot starved or stat squished by the leveling. And they will eat every debuff under the sun while defense armors will literally dodge them. In the meanwhile a defense based armor reaches at least 33% defense somewhat easily even in the early leveling (amplifiers, defense unique IOs, SOs) and from them on will subsist for long periods of time by dint of a small purple inspiration at regular intervals until IOs make up for that difference and they replace the small purple inspiration. Brutes in particular have access to Energy Armor which is top tier chef kiss if you don't like the aesthetics of Stone Armor (but Stone Armor has a lot of extra bells and whistles including recharge, a damage aura, a damage boost proc to all attacks, recovery, psi defense (which is kinda rare). - Endurance issues are common in the early game which is where we should slot early goodies (such as Panaceia proc, Numina proc, Miracle proc, Perfect Shifter proc) as soon as possible. It is better to slot endurance reduction in attacks than in toggles and to always carry a few (or a lot) of Recovery Serums from the START vendor. I don't know how new you are to the game so at the risk of coming off condescending check the guide in my signature and perhaps drop what builds you're using so we can see if any improvements could be found.