Sovera

Unironically while leveling is probably the best use for it. +0 or +1 get the near full brunt of it. There have been the pros and the cons discussed in this thread. I prefer doing the damage now instead of relying on my next hit though as the map clearing testing showed it made no difference. That's also due to the last hit scenario. If a mob has 100 HP and we need to hit twice for 50 to kill it, then it makes no difference if a damage proc hit for 20, we still need to hit it a second time. This is less noticeable with mobs that have more HP where the added 20 might shave one less hit. But since a spawn is composed of 50% minions we rely on big HP bags to really show results. That's why we do certain improvements like -res procs or proc monsters, and then we test and see 30 second improvements and call it pretty good, but it took 2-3 minutes of hitting something to shave those 30 seconds off. Big damage characters like Blasters, Scrappers and Brutes don't notice procs as much because of the last hit scenario. When they kill something in 1-2 hits procs don't add much. Lower damage ATs like Controllers and Defenders love procs since they might need 3-4 hits to kill something and that gives time for one or two procs to activate and maybe shave a hit. They notice only having to hit something 2-3 times. This is not backed by math but it's an observation on how I see the game after playing it for a few years now.

That seems very reasonable. It may not be Burn but it's closer to Offensive Adaptation, give or take a few %.

I know Boops, I was following that thread as well. But the equation didn't tell me enough. Now I know it's around 7 to 15 damage repeated through one or three times per attack (or none). Kinda ish a second damage aura but not really since an aura hits everyone.

Thank you kindly for the time. So a kind of second damage aura-ish in terms of damage. Don't see it really making or breaking a build - Burn it ain't - but certainly nice as an added damage. Pity the devs did not listen to the request of swapping Brimstone to a level lower. Now I'm pondering Rad Melee and Stone for triple damage aura effect.

I can't disagree. With two -res slotted in against +4 downshifted-to+3 AVs (multiple tests to take on account whiffing) the -res VS damage procs won by 5-8% (five minutes hitting the AV, see it's HP. Five minutes hitting with damage procs instead, see it's HP. Percentage the difference in HP from one test to the other). This is no doubt due to PPM and whiffs with the attacks that carried the -res procs and why it wasn't a clean 20% improvement (10% + 10% due to being two -res procs). Or 25% instead of 40% versus a pylon.

Yes. As @Mezmera pointed above. But with an if. The downside is if others have the proc slotted as well. Since it does not stack it makes the slot 'wasted' (better upkeep I suppose), and since the proc is so popular due to how it behaves with pylon tests that might happen on a regular basis. . I just want to put things in perspective: most AV fights happen under one minute at most and maybe less if Lores are used. My tests were 5 minutes long. The shorter the fight the less useful the -res. It's why they don't help much against normal mobs since they die in a few hits. Might as well get a damage proc instead of trying to improve the damage of the next hit. But does it really really matter? Will it really really influence things either way? Naaah, slot as desired.

Ffffffffffffffood emotes! \o/

It's definitely worth it if you're fighting pylons 😄 For actual gameplay not so much. If no one else in the team has it it will improve the damage on an AV by about... I want to say.. 2-3 percent. And almost nothing to nothing on normal mobs. Not spreadsheet, I tested it. Clearing a map with -res procs showed no difference from doing it with damage procs slotted in instead. Fighting +4 AV (+3 with alpha) and two -res procs was an improvement of 5-8%. Since we're talking of using just one -res it won't even be that. But on the plus side the damage is multiplied by 8 people in a team. As long as no one else also has the -res slotted since as you've said it does not stack. Now on a pylon it's godly since it does not resist -res effects and is +0. 5-8% for two -res procs? Nope. 25%! No wonder people love those procs when they test on a pylon and the pylon is the one perfect enemy for that.

Re-made the Rad/Fire in the original post to have all the goods (Devastating Blow + Atom Smasher). My previous plays of the build (even on a Brute) stalled due to the unimpressive ST but it made sense when not using DB. Also trying a Kinetic Melee version and it seems to actually work well with Fury pushing the low damage in the lower levels and then Burn picking up in the mid levels. The combo seems to complement itself with the longer lasting Build-Up mechanic playing well with the longer lasting Fiery Embrace. It's not too different from the Martial Arts tanker version where Dragon Tail helps pumping up the damage, but the difference is that on a Brute the MA variant only has Dragon tail at 26. It very much needs Burn to pick the damage up though.

To be fair with PK I had the same reaction yesterday when I tried to explain to someone how to copy a macro from the chat and they answered they didn't know how to (they also gave up even after I and the team piped in trying to explain 'click on text, drag cursor to select text, control C'). My own first reaction was 'how can you be on a computer, in a MMO, and not know how to copy text?'. That said yes, it is as you've said afterwards, we are all just so used to things that we take them for absolute granted. Welcome back to CoH and good news on making it work!

This brought me to mind yesterday as I made an alt and knew I was going to run a DFB or the same arcs I usually do. Not sure why we can't Ouro from level 1 if we can go to Ouro at level 1 and get the portal. Leveling the regular way outlevels contacts mid mission. It's -very- common to start the game, pick a contact, and two missions in we ge the 'I have nothing for you' because we lets its level range. One of the features I like of Ouro is also the level stasis. I don't want to freeze XP because I'm literally leveling, but I go do a mission and level 2-3 times and I'm fight -1 or -2 enemies which is drab. Ouro prevents this. Basically I would really like to just make a new alt, pick a contact from Ouro, run its full arc, then rinse and repeat. Instead of PL myself or run the same DFB-twice-because-a-single-run-of-DFB-leaves-me-at-level-7, Posi 1, Posi 2, route. I suppose it is not a big deal since we can just faff around until 15, but it seems arbitrary.

Since I seem to be attracting 'downvotes' and laughter. Objectively Thunderstrike with it's monumental 3.4 second animation to do 457 damage to the main target and half that to the rest caught in the radius is not great. Maybe if it did not split the damage in half for the other mobs caught in the radius. Lightning Rod that just does twice the damage of a regular PbAoE. Not using Claws because Spin is an outlier, but randomly grabbing Savage from one of my builds it does 239 damage and recharges in 4.59 seconds. Shield Charge does.... 418 on 27 seconds cooldown. Is it bad? No, it's a bit less than twice the damage of a regular PbAoE after all. But it's also on a 27 second timer. Chain Induction is great with a speedy 1.2 cast and something like 356 damage. It's a chain and that has problems like if it misses the chain stops there. Regardless of the above I don't speak just because I feel like it. I tested. I don't spreadsheet. I go, level a character, play it, then report. While we can say that Burn skews things both the Martial Arts and Elec Melee had Burn so parity was maintained. Both did the clear of the map in the same time despite Elec having three AoEs and MA having one. Despite Burn (obviously) carrying things it would make a lot more sense that the 'clearly superior AoE build' would have a much better clearing time. I have nothing more to say on the subject.

It really isn't. Thunderstrike is slow as molasses and does half the damage to those who aren't the target (so don't look at TS' damage on mids and assume everyone is taking that damage in the radius). Lightning Rod does twice the damage of a regular PbAoE with 4-5x the recharge time. Chain Induction is ok and that's about it. It's like saying Staff is a great AoE set. No, it isn't. It has lots of AoEs which is different, but they are slow and do little damage so we're stuck animating low damage skills.

It's the sort of thing that would also prop up the ailing Elec Melee.

How does Brimstone's proc compare as a damage proc? Second 'damage aura' or something that feels significant?

It's as complicated as logging into the test server and hitting a pylon. I'm personally pretty disappointed with Fault. It can't be called an AoE when full bar of Fury + BU + Gaussian puts minions to half HP.

As promised a Stone/Fire that includes Fault. The good: a low level AoE! Stone needed one. The bad: Fault is not actually an AoE. Full bar of Fury + BU + Gaussian = minions at half HP. Considering the recharge and endurance cost this is beyond terrible. The horrible: Fault has incredibly bad native accuracy. It takes being level 50 with all the raw stats + Focused Accuracy + accuracy bonuses from miscellany sets for it to have 90% chance to hit. In the low levels even with it slotted it is embarrassing to use the skill and see so many misses. Again, considering the cost and recharge... Also the horrible: Fault does not work while hovering. The devs refused to open a line of communication when asked if they could copy paste the code that lets Tremor/Footstomp/Burn be used while hovering, so I have no news to tell whether it is possible, impossible, too much work, an absolute no or a maybe. So for now I have a couple binds that I use to turn Hover on and off and it's as kludgy as anyone can guess. For the rest of you who are okay with not using Fly just move on past. Overall where I praise the previous build - DM/Fire - I cringe at this one. It's my first and only Brute/Tanker that I could look at and honest say 'This would not have soloed Posi 1, no way, not ever'. This is because it encapsulates the worst of CoH gameplay. City of Cooldowns? City of Out of Endurance? Yes. Too long CDs, too heavy costs, then when the power is finally up we use it and it misses. Horrible. I can only imagine trying to solo Posi 1 with Fault unable to actually do damage and the slow as molasses progress trying to make endurance last while tapping my foot at the recharge timers. Fault is also not Ice Patch and the mitigation from it was heh. Heh enough that I'm considering it is a waste of slots to keep the power. That said the build has good potential but Fire Armor will be carrying it. Consume to help with the endurance, Burn to have an AoE until 32, etc. Seismic Smash still hits very hard and stuns a boss with just one hit and the whole ST rotation is available very early. Despite Fault being crap it does take an FF proc which reduces its role to risible AoE damage, middling to puny mitigation, but a turbo for the rest of the build. A bit like Dragon Tail but I'd take Dragon Tail over Fault. We can chalk this as birthing pangs and with full IOs, more global recharge, etc, that things will straighten up. Later on I can imagine that spamming Fault + the improved Tremor will help a lot with mitigation while Burn does the actual AoE damage. So I'll force myself to level a bit more, but it was cringy to reach Yin and take a minute circling around the first spawn slowly whittling them with Fault because I didn't have Burn yet. If the objective was adding a low level AoE until 32 it failed.

Fire/Ice melee is my usual recommendation for a new player. I've spoken it about it too often to re-hash it but it's in my signature with the whys and whatfors.

Nowadays probably EM. DM is for more extreme survival but though it behaves well (I had good results soloing with the new DM) I feel it it counter-intuitive for group play with the slow animation of Soul Drain and wanting mobs grouped up where in team play they get obliterated in seconds. To be honest try the new Stone Melee maybe? Anyway, here you go, it relies on Barrier's 5% to finish capping defense and resistances. It's all around much cheaper with the exception of the ATOs. There's a free power I didn't know what to do with so take whatever you'd like-

Bio is for damage and is squishier but, Sentinels are less prone to damage taking since they fly and the build is 100% ranged. /Fire would have Burn which does pretty good damage when all procced out, but demands to be in melee range to drop it. Ablative and DNA Reconstruction as heals and Barrier as a panic button. I don't feel there is a point in chasing more defense. Otherwise I might say regen or SR. Again Sentinels take less damage to start with.

Outdated, check the other post below where I have included the leveling build. Since everyone is going to be rolling one of these (myself included) here's a build. It's not perfect and I lack infinite slots so, welp, only one AoE (two with the nuke) and I sacrificed a bit of S/L defense to get more recovery. I vaguely recall that Sentinels were very good on endurance thanks to defensive opportunity thingy so that extra slot in Health can probably return to Pulverize with five Superior Blistering Cold. As fliers I don't think the extra 1% is worth the 100 million, but, eh, options. As always it asks for Barrier as a panic button and to finish capping defenses.

I realize I'm still posting on the feedback thread so I'll cross post here: So, no communication on Fault being used while having Hover/Mystic flight? It would have been nice to have a maybe, no, we'll think about it, too much work, answer. Toggleon and toggleoff keybinds it is I guess. Alright, this is what I have. It's clumsy because it require two keypresses to toggle Hover on and off and introduces gaps. Change Hover for whatever flight power you're using. It's possible three keypresses are required if having Hover + Fly on as well as modifying the macro. /bind lshift+1 "$$powexectoggleoff hover$$powexecname fault" - This requires two keypresses if for no other reason that when Hover/Flight/Mystic Flight/Jetpack is toggled off we are still in the air. It takes a second to drop, so, welp, a keypress, wait until we touch the ground, then a second keypress. /bind 1 "$$powexecslot 1$$powexectoggleon hover" - This too requires two keypresses and will reactivate Hover/Mystic Flight/Flight/Jetpack. The powexectoggleon ensures that part will only activate if any of the above are toggled off. I suggest perhaps making more than one bind, maybe one for Tremor who doesn't care about roleplay and one more than just the first attack in case it's on cooldown.

Alright, this is what I have. It's clumsy because it require two keypresses to toggle Hover on and off and introduces gaps. Change Hover for whatever flight power you're using. It's possible three keypresses are required if having Hover + Fly on as well as modifying the macro. /bind lshift+1 "$$powexectoggleoff hover$$powexecname fault" - This requires two keypresses if for no other reason that when Hover/Flight/Mystic Flight/Jetpack is toggled off we are still in the air. It takes a second to drop, so, welp, a keypress, wait until we touch the ground, then a second keypress. /bind 1 "$$powexecslot 1$$powexectoggleon hover" - This too requires two keypresses and will reactivate Hover/Mystic Flight/Flight/Jetpack. The powexectoggleon ensures that part will only activate if any of the above are toggled off. I suggest perhaps making more than one bind, maybe one for Tremor who doesn't care about roleplay and one more than just the first attack in case it's on cooldown.

So, no communication on Fault being used while having Hover/Mystic flight? It would have been nice to have a maybe, no, we'll think about it, too much work, answer. Toggleon and toggleoff keybinds it is I guess.