Sovera

It wouldn't happen in a vacuum. The HC crew hasn't been that way.

You might need to compare build notes with America's Angel. Your 'proof' appears to be how your Brute is just barely edging ahead of the Tanker, where America's Brute, also Claws, also with a secondary that does not boost damage directly, does it in 2:30. Suffice it to say I never even got close to those times on a Tanker even on a direct damage boosting Fire Armor with Fiery Embrace and a heavy Burn. maybe by adding -res procs I'll get to 3 minutes as average but if America's Angel did it with a PvP character I'm doubting that they have -res procs slotted in.

Good catch with the Tough 😄 That's a saved slot right there. There's no need to then waste it on 7.5% HP back on Tough though. Change one RES/RECH in Static Shield (or Conductive Shield) for the 7.5% unique and you keep the bonuses and only lose 1% in Psi resistance which you can afford since you'll still be overcapped with a second ATO stack and Barrier (81%, 87% with a second stack, 92% with Barrier, or 93% with a third stack as you simply hit things). I'm not sure on what would be a good use for that slot. Maybe a -KB IO for those times you're jumping and Grounded isn't protecting from KBs? Maybe a second damage proc in Laser Eyes? Just put it where ever you think might be useful.

I have tried over and over to make Tankers do more damage but they seem to average out at 4 minutes (no -res included) in pylon times. More bling, more procs, makes no difference. The average is 4 minutes, period. Some outliers like EM go lower, Titan Weapons pre-nerf, but those were/are outliers in all ATs and not just Tankers. -res procs do shift that goalpost and then the combos who can use more -res procs further it, but that's not an AT thing, it's a skewed test that places a lot of results in literally 1-2 slots in a whole build, and that have actually little influence in the game. I have the actual tests that show the -res procs have little influence either in mission clearing or AV killing. But, they are great for pylons.

For years and years Tankers were this useless AT only die hard fans played while every advice was to just roll a Brute. Tankers get buffed, Brutes become middle of the pack, and Tankers are on the call for nerfs. Seriously?

It's still a 2.24 animation to use. Perhaps against a pylon AKA 2-3 minute long fights, but 2.24 is really a long time to use on a non damaging attack. I suppose it just needs to be done until Insight kicks in again though. What was the lockout again? 15 seconds?

In my own experiments Decimation proc did absolutely nothing. What are your results with it and an empty slot instead?

That's because we're not mathmagicians like you two. But results even a chimp can test and show.

Well, other than the terrible damage when I tested it. Which was odd at the time but it was really bad VS a pylon even though I didn't use the greater psi sword. But yes, incredibly stiff animations where TK punch looks the best IMO, though I also like the hand swords. The -looks- are great, but the darn animations... And yes, or a Stutter TF. Level 40. Lots of giant robots to chew through. Or Tinpex, same.

Lies. Just watching you banter math with Bopper is worth the entry fee. Not many do that anymore.

You said to the creator of the Brutal Mission sim to try it. And it's not being assholes, this isn't Reddit, calm your tatas. Guys thought it was fun and it was.

The argument that 'Sentinels step on Scrapper/Blaster toes' is odd. We already have Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers who all generously tap dance on each other's toes competing for DPS rankings with small differences in survival (on his own a Brute has as much survival as the Scrapper and Stalker). Removing the target cap from the Sentinel would, IMO, let it step rather on a ranged Tanker mode (without the agro grabbing of a real tank). Just like a Tanker it would do less damage than a real damage class, and, just like the current Tanker, it would be an AoE machine able to throw nukes at every spawn unlike every other ranged that does it every two spawns. So a Blaster would do more damage in ST but if we had a damage parser at the end of a mission the Sentinel might just be there by the Blaster's side because it pulped more mobs. But this requires removing the stupid target caps. It needs to hi the whole pack, not 3/4ths of it.

I'm not a VEAT player so my experience is small, but you have so much +5 stuff in the build at the OP that will just murder all your bonuses if you exemp. I'm not sure i'm looking at the correct build since you say you attuned the LotG but they aren't. Why not add three more slots to Aim and finish 6 slotting Gaussian? You'd push your AoE and Range to 45% without Mind Link leaving Mind Link as a Barrier style panic button (use it if your HP/defenses are going down, not on CD). ML is way way waaaay too long to be using on CD. Ick, near 4 seconds. You have so much damage on Spin that you could change the damage IO for a damage recharge and still be overcapped and finish EDing your recharge. There are a lot of choices I would not go for personally. 3% HP is nothing to write home about in my book and instead 5% melee defense would free some slots. The last slot in Maneuvers barely adds 0.5% as well

Anything with group fly so your henchies can keep up.

Everything seems in order. The only thing I might say is that you have too much in the way of resistances. Lower them a bit since you have the ATO in Seismic Smash that adds 6.7% to all resistances each time it procs, and it can stack three times (Mids accounts for just one and even so they are already a 90%). You shouldn't need Ageless IMO, Barrier is a great panic button for a resist based Tanker (-def attacks will make a mockery out of 90% resists), which also adds another permanent 5% to defense and resists that you can again juggle with. Your 90% resists would go up to 95% with Barrier up, then to 101% with a second ATO stack. Anything over 90% is wasted. This allows to change slotting and add more procs where you'd see fit or to better some slotting like Energize (as your sole heal it should be pumped up). I don't want to mess with your build too much since it's tailored for your playstyle, because if I do it would just turn into another Sovera-cookie-cutter build, but things to consider are your accuracy in Fault (70% against +3, but it's not a power I would bother with personally), that you might want your ATO at a lower level than you pick it so you get the procs sooner, placing a Gaussian proc in Build-up, Paralytic Radial is of very little use and I suggest Degenerative with 75% chance for DoT with 25% chance for debu-... This is taking too long to write 😛 Trying to respect your choices. - Defenses at 40% for Barrier to finish capping if you're doing hard content. If it's not hard content you don't need to use Barrier in the first place. - Resistances at 80%-ish with one stack of the ATO, 86% with a second stack that happens naturally as you're playing, then either a third (unreliable) to finish capping or you're doing hard content and using Barrier and it's a neat 90% including psi. Toxic remains your sole defensive hole. As a bonus Tough becomes a mule you don't toggle on because you won't need it to cap S/L resistances. - Extreme exemplaring was taken into account so powers were shuffled. As low as Posi 1 you have at least two attacks to juggle and one of them is a cone to help with AoE. Both have FF procs to help with recharge. Power Sink comes much much earlier so that you can stop relying on Energize for endurance (a heal needs to be used for moments healing is needed). Because of trying to take Cross punch so early sacrifices are made with Combat Jumping and Lightning Field taken so late, but shuffle according to your desires. - Gloom is great, but I think you'll feel the hurt once you fight mobs who debuff accuracy. Focused Accuracy in the epic Energy pool would fix this, but you will have to see if it's important enough to do the swap. - Hasten at 124 is pretty spiffy and will become perma with all the FF procs. *pantpant* That was some Tetris-ing to fit all the things.

This is all japanese to me. Do you want to tentatively beep Jimmy and see what one of them says? Maybe the blame is on the parser as you say, perhaps not.

Something like this, I guess. Just switch things around the way you see fit. Fire Melee isn't very good atm and Rad Melee (colored fire like :p) would perform better. It has 40% to all defenses which Barrier pushes to 45% and S/L gets capepd with two stacks and Barrier's 5%. You did ask for Fire epic but you can move things around the way you see fit now you have a guideline. I prefer Focused Accuracy to not spend minutes whiffing against ToHit debuffers or Arachnos blinds.

Romans aren't the best test subjects since they toss those +def shouts, and 66% base isn't much depending on how much global accuracy, but I wouldn't be surprised has something off in it such as the pseudo pet not inheriting global accuracy which would make 66% really low especially against romans. That said the moment devs look into Burn they may decide to nerf the everliving bejeezus out of it so don't rock the boat 😛 Perhaps try versus a different faction first?

Narrator: But it could, and it was. Grabbing Ice Sword and using it along with Arcane Bolt, no Frost used: 4:30. For those paying attention it was 30 seconds behind the same slotting but using Frozen Fists, an already very mediocre power. Loss of Assault may have helped. This certainly tempers my interest in future wedging Arcane Bolt into a build. For posterity I'll leave the Arcane Bolt build up:

I had the same problem myself, but yes, definitely. The moment you get Singy you get your AoE CC who also pulls a spawn together. it makes my Tankers salivate with envy. The best part? It 'recharges' in 6 seconds 😄 Eventually your Singy gets worn down, but by then you can just replace it by a new one. I chose to drop out of the fighting Pool because without Hover flying is not great for combat. I also had ruinous EPS with barely 0.20 POSITIVE! 😄 So two less toggles was good, but it was a tough decision since I had 75% to S/L and 45% ranged with Fighting.

So what if it's 2 AM? I managed to squeeze in Arcane Bolt into the build and of course I had to go test it. HYPE! Arcane Bolt is supposed to be a better attack now, and it allows to fit in a FF proc to help speed things up, so this will be go-... Nope. 5:20. Second attempt, maybe something went horribly wrong *cry*: 5:00. ...guess not. Final final attempt. Frozen Fists and big emphasis on shooting FT and Burn the second they are up: 5:02 Nope, Arcane Bolt is still crap that can't compete with Ice Sword. Maybe trying to fit in Ice Sword so it can alternate with Arcane Bolt though this will mess up exemplaring thanks to being forced to waste a power on Frozen Fists regardless. I mean, Arcane bolt is still bad, but it can't be Frozen Fists bad, right? Right? Tomorrow will tell since it's nearly 3 AM again.

Sovera is. I couldn't see how to improve this tbh. The obvious answer would be to remove the slots from Barrage and spread them around on things like the woefully underslotted Moonbeam, but then what? Level with Bone Smasher and Brawl until 26? And if exemplaring dust Brawl again? Barrage kinda needs to stay since TF is so far away. Energy Punch is better than Barrage btw, even though Barrage has that 'special' for using the Energy Focus mechanic. EM is a bit of a headache for me since I sort of refuse to use ET's slow mode and insist in wanting to have it only after TF... but TF's recharge is super awkward and tends to force the use of Barrage. Moonbeam does not recharge fast enough to be up for more than every two rotations. So I'm not going to delve into this. Scrapper vets may be of more help. The only small changes I can spot would be removing the sixth Hectacomb from ET for a Touch of Death proc, and replace the Makos in Bone Smasher for five Touch of Death for a little bit more resistance. Also adding another three Eradications in Power Crash to finish capping Energy instead of adding more S/L with Obliteration. Do keep the Armaggedon proc in Power Crash though. You should be able to TF, Power Crash, Whirling, Power Crash, repeat. TF is a great proc triggerer so the Critical Strikes proc sits well there (and gives ET/PC a very good chance to crit). ET is a good proc carrier as well since it requires no endurance reduction and has decent recharge as is. But the rest of the Critical Strikes set is not particularly great to have six slotted. I'd possibly try to fit the five Hectacomb in TF instead.

@Beta968 is a gentleman and a scholar, kudos.

Continuing from the previous post since it was 3 AM - as what had started as a quick test turned into multiple ones - what I extract from these tests is that the value of procs go down as they cost something. FT at 700 damage should have blown FT at 540 out of the water, and yet casting fewer FTs ultimately caught up, and, in fact, surpassed it slightly. Casting our heaviest hitters as much as possible is common sense but its good that testing backs this bit of popular knowledge Look at Slash from Claws, for example. It fits perfectly within its rotation and requires no recharge to continue doing so, ergo loading it with procs adds something to the build at just the loss of a bonus set. But looking at FT the extra damage comes at the cost of casting more T2 or T3 which are laughably behind it in damage. So looking back at Ice we do have that one attack that fits perfectly in the rotation: Ice Sword. Even without any recharge slotted in it it recharges in 2.50 seconds... which is as long as Frost takes, so there is no loss in loading it with procs instead of aiming for IO bonuses. - First test: 3:51. Better, but I'm dropping Frost from the rotation which means lower upkeep for the ATO +res proc. - Tossed the four Might of the Tanker into Burn. The upkeep of the proc is now much better. Also 3:46. The differences are minimal so far though far from no-recharge-FT testing as I play with 5 Hectacombs. - Testing with minimal-recharge-FT to improve FT's damage changed little: 4:01 - Frost takes too long to cast and I find that I'm either waiting 1-1.5 seconds to pass to use another skill or using Frost and having my better skills up while it's still animating. So time to bring back Frozen Fists with full-Hectacomb-FT.... and nope. 3:54 - Perhaps Frozen Fists + procmonstered Ice Sword with minimum-recharge-FT: 3:25 ...alright, we may be on to something. One more try: ....3:48. Or it was just a fluke. - Everything fits perfectly with Hectacomb-slotted-FT, Frozen Fists, frankenslotted Ice Sword, Frozen fists.... but no, 4:10. - Frankenslotting and adding lots of procs seems to have brought very little dividends. So what of the regular slotting but with the Frozen Fist spam? 4:01. - Frankenslotted Frozen Fists: 3:40 - 4:10 - 4:06... how do we lose 30 seconds like this? It goes beyond just 'whiffing'. - Everything slotted regular like but Frost as the procmonstered carrier: 3:56 We are back on the starting line. Adding a boatload of procs did not really affect things either way as the times are firmly stuck on the 4 minute average. Things I have learned: Frozen Fists 'feels' better to use for ST. Faster animating and less time choosing whether to use a power when I have 1-1.5 for Ice Sword/FT/Burn to recharge. Ultimately it does not matter either way so what feels better may be the better criteria. This is merely on the animation side of things as Frozen Fists is a pretty terrible power all around. Same animation time of the T2 but with the damage of a T1? Yuck. Same deal with Greater Ice Sword. It has the same animation time of Frost but is ST and hits for a whooping extra... nine damage. Also, testing is as infuriating as ever with 30 seconds from one try to the next.

I've tried making this into a single bind and was unable to as it would get stuck in targeting Singy and would not move to Teleport Target. I resolved this by making a rolling bind. It still has some flaws such as Singy needing to be within LoS to be targeted which doesn't always happen. But, I must say, this gameplay is nearly mandatory now. I kept doing this and that and eventually figured my main AoE CC both trapping, CCing, and helping the team, was simply to teleport Singy into a new group of enemies. It was very satisfying and fulfilling. Singularity.txt Singularity2.txt