Sovera

A Tanker. You can plod through content and kill the AVs without piano play or expensive builds. You do pay for that with lower damage but the right combo can shorten the gap. A Fire Armor/Energy Melee will mostly nullify the idea you're on a lower damage AT. Brute will be squishier but do more damage. Any advice in this thread is good though and that's because you can lower the difficulty since you're not competing against others.

That and in regular content the first AoE kills the minions and voila, we only have five or six targets left. Now we have hard modes and also 801's where 'minions' last longer (actually haven't run either in a while, but I assume so) and more sustained AoE is of import. But that is bleeding edge of content. My Elec/Bio has a pretty decent pylon time for a fully ranged Sentinel, but it's deceptive since it relies on sapping for the Shocked mechanic. In short fights or sap resistance mobs the damage goes down. That said I'm fairly sure 80% of teams don't have their damage dealers doing 3 minutes on a pylon. Heck, most my Brutes run in the three minutes pylon times. Trapdoor? Abysmal, 7:30 ish, but runners mess the testing. A Tanker in the test doing nothing more than run their toggles and healing themselves would probably decrease that time by a fair bit by balling up the enemies. My point of view remains the same as before: Sentinels are a nice and lazy class. I compare them to WoW's Hunters (Beastmasters in particular). And the comparison actually goes further than that. Because at the bleeding edge of content the top tier players abandon their Hunters and play a 'better' class. Or they at least abandon the lazy Beastmaster spec. But in practice most people are not as bleeding edge as they might think of themselves. The poo poo-ed Sentinel can (and I suspect it does) out-perform its specialized fellow ATs because it just keeps on trucking and any time the more fragile ATs spend worrying or using defensive clickies or running the Sentinel is pew pewing. Also the value of a nuke available at every spawn and not every two (again, Judgement steals value from this). This is not easily quantified though. With DPS addons I don't need to apologize for playing a Hunter when I am consistently in the top three for damage both in trash and fighting a boss. But in CoH we lack this. Same reasoning that makes players gravitate away from Brutes to Scrappers to eke more damage even knowing that they will be squishier is what makes players drop a Sentinel and roll a Blaster. That said the AT does need some loving and it has been much delayed. More than it deserves. But it also reflects the idea that the AT is not as bad as players perceive. It fits its role.

... are we doing this each time someone posts a Super Strength build? Because running around with 160% damage does not make whatever AT it is played with uber, nope nope, only Tankers.

Not sure if serious with the six slotted Hasten. It's not perma either but at 143 seconds though using Ageless may be enough to shave enough for it to almost be. Are you intending to be in granite armor 100% of the time? Gameplay wise there is no reason for that since Stone Armor doesn't need Granite (objectively makes the set weaker when used, both defense and offense). For example, no real need for shoring psi resist when without granite you can be at 45% psi defense. But if it's for theme then okay. You didn't slot your Might of the Tanker? It gives nearly 20% resists to all. Wait, no, I see you've put the proc in Fault. Why in Fault though? It has horrendous accuracy and recharges so slowly you'll never have more than one stack. You're not going to be using it against a single enemy. Seismic Smash is your best attack and you've not slotted it for damage? There is no need for -KB IOs for Stone Armor. No need to keep Tought toggled on either. I did some tweaks but did not go into it as deep as it could (should) still assuming you want to be in Granite Form 100% of the time. Keep in mind you're trading +endurance from Crystal Armor, +recharge and (at least) 45% defense to psi from Minerals, a damage boost from Brimstone, all of that for -damage, -recharge, -movement speed, but +resists and +DDR of being in Granite 100% of the time. It's a choice.

Yes, but that is what I meant about the evolution of the game. At some point those double tags ought to have been dropped. Now part of the the playerbase is ready to take up pitchforks if nerfed because 'it has always been so' (no, no it hasn't) without even stopping to consider if it's normal for a single player to solo content meant for eight. Also yes, that sounds terrible. Even now in GW2 the devs take pride in not using obvious tells like WoW does (boss shouting something when using a certain skill) and rely instead of tells like the boss raising an arm (which is completely and utterly drowned in visual effects for a bunch of players spamming their skills).

I rest my case.

Not sure why you qualify it as malicious. It's like saying I have food in my pantry but I'm not giving it away then I am malicious. Especially being an illegal thing. Oh, they were doing an illegal thing and were not spreading word about it. That's being smart, not malicious.

The problem really comes from the evolution of the game making attacks have two damage types. We have specific defenses against fire, cold, energy, negative, etc. This would not have not have grown into a problem if the old devs had stuck to making those attacks purely their element. If the players then had looked at it and said 'S/L attacks are a majority with punches, bullets, swords, kicks and etc, then working S/L defense up means we will, statistically, take less % damage at the end of a mission' that would have been fine. Not 90% of the damage averted but 20% (random numbers, don't quote me). Still statistically significant and allowing to focus on certain S/L factions for their farming or favorite enemies. But as it is electrical attacks ALSO have S/L, radiation attacks ALSO have S/L, some psi attacks ALSO have S/L. The list goes on, and protecting against S/L made S/L defense OP as heck. It's not a case of blocking just punches and swords and kicks but also protecting against fire and ice and electrical and radiation. As it is S/L defense would have statistically have an impact on a player's HP but they would still at the mercy or all the elemental and negative/energy attacks. Instead it became the OP thing allowing squishies to tank side by side with Scrappers and made Sentinels the joke they are now where their damage was alleviated because of their sturdiness, but their sturdiness is nothing special in an end game IOed build. Does this have an easy solution? Not easy, no, we can see the loudness of the con party on how their squishies no longer being able to solo at maximum difficulty would make them uninstall. But not stop to think 'is it -normal- for a squishy to solo missions meant for EIGHT players?'. No, this part does not matter because they could do it before and that's all that matters. Heck, in WoW only a select few classes (and players because piloting the build matters nearly 50%) can even solo normal dungeons, not even heroic dungeons, not mythical dungeons, and it is newsworthy and fame worthy to the point their names are known to see a single digit number of players able to solo certain raids.

It's kinda malicious technically correct to keep on mentioning it does '15% damage boost' when the simplest test shows it doing 4-5%. The label makes it seem huge, but, it's really not. Even if all eight players are affected by it it's 40% and not a 120% damage boost. The label is the first thing people notice and seem to argue for or against without accepting the actual boost (hit something with Assault toggled on. Now toggle it off and hit again. Simply % calculator found on the net if math illiterate like I am, inject both numbers). Now is 4-5% worth a toggle considering it goes to everyone? Maybe. The devs might think so when we read some of their posts about certain powers being 'too good' if asked for a wider angle to a cone. I might think so as well if we can get a coordinated team where all eight have Assault. One person with Assault = team does 40% more damage. Eight persons with Assault = team does 320% My math illiteracy rears its head since it seems like too much. Bottom line is that both Maneuvers and Assault are team wide buffs and balancing/buffing must always assume eight players will stack it.

I remember testing this with a Tanker (which gets a bigger version of Assault). Turning it on, hitting something. Turning it off, hitting something. 4% damage difference.

Still not sure what's the point of this change. We slot to have 95% accuracy when possible. What type it goes against makes what difference if we are slotted for 95%?

Preach it. I loathe full body costumes since being introduced to them by GW2 when their dev team got lazy (AKA it was easier and more money to abandon at the time the current system of armor pieces to replace by a full size outfit). Nothing has really changed. Even in GW2 that allows to at least mess around a bit with the colors of full size outfits people still look like clones even if not to the extreme of game's like WoW that have no dyes. But on one hand it also makes the reward not so good that people feel forced to do it such as when rewards are placed in PvP or raids (which this can count as one). Too good a reward and people feel forced to do it. As it is it has a definite reward (if few do it then the costumes will be rare and can be sold accordingly) on top of the other rewards for the extra difficulty. Either to be used or sold. You're right on the money that pretty seer robes or whatever could and would serve better as account unlocks though. All things considered goals are nice to log in and chip at, be it farming 50 mill for some IOs or unlocking costume pieces.

This has been an unfortunate common occurrence with CoH. How very common to see old PvP end in draws as people were unable to defeat each other, and even now we still find AVs as stops. Not because they hit hard, or have hard mechanics, or patterns that need to be learned, but just because they have too much regen. Out of curiosity did your team try to bail and return with envenomed daggers? Would it have made a difference? Do they even stack from between members? It could become a new norm to remind everyone to bring a stack of those before entering the new difficulty modes.

Grab a character of yours and do a radio mission against a certain type of enemies of your choice. Then copy the same character to the Beta (it's just a few clicks, no need to level or slot it again or anything) and run the same mission against the same type of enemies. Compare results. Those who have done it report a small bump in difficulty, and I, for one, am pleased at the gentle balancing nudge from the current devs coming from other games where a dev's nerf hammer can ruin a certain class or type of game sometimes for years on end. Cross reference with old devs and Regen and how it never recovered.

Nightmare to solo it at x8 with Rad Armor OR Rad Melee since the bosses spawn as Rad defenders and we get debuffed into oblivion in seconds. Defense or resistance does not matter. I've gone in with four small purples and four small oranges and still got creamed.

Nope. We're resistance based. S/L defense is just another layer of protection. In the case of the Fire/MA the changes don't even affect it.

As Kaizen said, please be specific. Tests ran exhaustively by players worried about this have been run and been posted. You say otherwise. Surely it was not just some random sky-is-falling without having been tested first.... right? And please, don't let it just slide into obscurity, do give an answer and if possible what build was used. You did take the time to write all that so surely it is important enough to share what you found. ...you did test it and it wasn't just a panicky reply, right?

Funny you should say that when the Assault line seems to do so little. Even as you praise it diminished the time in 15 seconds, or a couple whiffs off not making a difference. Especially on short fights where it was in effect for the duration, not even 3-4 minutes duration where the cooldown period would dilute the gains. But this is unrelated to the build or the test, kudos on a good time and not even using Bio o/

Critted? Do you mean die? Broadsword does have Parry if you use that power.

As Xandyr said you've somehow managed to skip both on your heal and your endurance clickies. Might of the Tanker works better in a single target power than on an aura. Anyway, here is what I would do. Don't be put off by the 78% resists to S/L since it goes to 84% with a second stack from the tanker ATO in Radioactive Smash, and then 89% with Barrier and 90% when your HP drops to 90% HP. Any content you don't need Barrier is not hard enough to warrant 90% to begin with and the same with defenses that go to 45% with Barrier (same reasoning as above). I sacrificed Combat Jumping and the 7.5% recharge that go with it for Physical Perfection to balance taking Focused Accuracy which is a must with any content that blinds and/or debuffs accuracy, but in practical terms in a team you might find being blinded or debuffed is not a problem since your team will deal with the things that would be a major roadblock if soloing. So Xandyr's option of using Gloom to improve the damage is also good. I just prefer being self sufficient and three attacks are enough (Devastating, Radioactive Smash, Radiation Siphon, Radioactive Smash. Repeat. Pre-Devastating Blow it's Radiation Siphon, Contaminated Strike, Radioactive Smash, Contaminated Strike. Repeat), but Gloom is pretty strong so taking out Physical Perfection and FA to bring back Combat Jumping and Gloom just needs some reshuffling of slots.

I'm surprised by my magnanimous nature. Three years in the forums and only thirteen thumbs down:

No more building washing machines and ovens!

Scaling might be the answer. I mean, we already have scaling in the form of the difficulty slider. But yet again more scaling. Single person in a team? Regular +4/8. Two persons in a team? +4x8 with mobs having 20% more HP (random numbers subjected to actual tuning). 8 people in the team? +4x8 with mobs having 200% extra HP. Because it -is- dull playing in a full team and one nuke from the Blaster (or a Judgement from any of the eight in the team) immediately kills half a spawn leaving 3-4 mobs alive. Tbh even with 200% HP mobs might still melt very fast but we could at least hit them a few times. We'd also avoid/abandon AVs dying in 30 seconds, though I also agree HP sponges are not terribly interesting either. But between HP sponges and mobs dying while the meleers try to at least land a few hits I dunno which is worse. This is only a version of the the much desired and hoped for difficulty slider option of 'every mob is a boss' that basically wants the same results: combat not over in ten seconds.

Level less zones are a hard yes for me. Grey and green mobs are an artifact of the past. Such as tiptoeing past +4 or +7 mobs because an arc sends us across a zone. Naysayers will naysay and that's fine since I'm not here to change their mind, only to state my opinion.