Sovera

Yes, Crabminders are great but can't direct pets to hit the target they want, can't make them follow, or go to, and the cooldowns are huge. A Mastermind just throws out more minions if theirs dies but a Crabmind will play without the pets until they recharge... and might just die again once cast. And just like with a Mastermind pets fold, fast, against +4.

I feel that I can speak based on my recent experience leveling a Brute. - You level a Brute because you want to do more damage than a Tanker. Not all builds are equal, but the last build I did broke a pylon one minute faster than the same build as a Tanker. And it also has much better burst because of that. - You level a Brute because all secondaries have agro grabbing auras which is not the case for a Scrapper. This may seem like a minor thing until we get mobs running away constantly (if solo). It also may be a minor thing if only playing the secondaries that have agro auras (Rad, Bio, etc), but there is a reason so few Scrappers go for Fire Armor. - You level a Brute because you want to do steady higher damage instead of relying on crits. Scrapper damage is great. When it crits. When it does it's not that amazing. Now crits happen when they care to happen. A crit out of the bat after a BU and it happens for an AoE? Serotonin to the brain baby! But that's not something that happens all the time. And sometimes it happens when we don't care for it such as the mob going to die anyway and a crit is overdamage. Why is a Scrapper so much better damage then? Because our tests are of Damage Per Second instead of Burst Damage. And because of that the Scrapper evens out. In regular gameplay we don't deal with DPS. Instead we deal with Burst. We go in, we explode a spawn, then mop the remains, then repeat. Scrappers are still great damage and still worth to look at in terms of pure damage dealers because their ATOs are amazing. Brutes... welp... Their ATOs stupendously suck. I would personally like one of the to be half strength of the Tanker ATO and the other half strength of the Scrapper (not in crits of course, but something like 'each point of Fury instead of giving 1% damage gives 1.10% damage'. Or whatever. I'm not a balance dev but you get the idea. Having an ATO that gives Fury and an ATO that gives regen and recovery is pretty close to useless. In terms of defense yep, Tanker has much better numbers. But that's normal. A Scrapper does more damage but is squishy, a Tanker is sturdier but does less damage. The Brute is the middle version of both. We know this. Nothing has changed. Edit: You also overstate how long it takes to reach full Fury. In my pylon test I got too full Fury in 10-15 seconds. This is not a good example because the pylon only hits every 5-6 seconds. We get Fury when we are swung at so in normal gameplay the first 10 seconds of a fight the Brute will be at full. Then it will degenerate between spawns, but the same patch that buffed Tankers also buffed both Fury generation and minimized Fury degeneration.

Probably more than you intended, but it's all good o/

What is it that you call 'inferior resists'? It's at 90%. You can't go higher than 90%. You -can- slot to go higher than 90% but it's wasted since 90% is the max. Are you ignoring the math because you're seeing 77-78% to S/L/E/N and think that's it? A second ATO stack puts it at 85%, Barrier puts it to 90%. You can ignore Barrier and ATO stacks and just put it natively to 90%, sure, then you get ATO stacks and it goes to... 90%, and another stack and it goes to... 90%. Then if Barrier is needed is goes to... 90%. I have yet to touch a single resist armor set that did not easily cap 90% to S/L/E/N. Seriously, I just slapdash throw some resist on toggles and poof, done. Only things like Fire/Cold or Toxic/Psi remain often uncapped if they don't have a toggle for it. My Rad Armor builds have toxic/psi at 90% because they have a toggle for it. And we must be having different experiences because 90% resists on -45% defense is death. I mean, yes, I would love for a resist set to go hahahahahahahahahahahitmeagainIalmostfelthat because resist sets -should- be like that. In practice defense sets mostly ignore -def because they have DDR, and ignore -res because they either don't have res or don't care since the hits need to get past defense first. I have my resists monitored. 90% is not enough. Resists don't protect against enemies who do -defense. Resist sets are screwed. Anyone who plays resist sets knows this. It's kinda ok up to -10% or -20%, then iffy at -30% and at -45% you'd better be kitting your behind off because standing your ground is suicide. You are way too experienced for me to understand how you can say that 90% means -def is negligible so I don't understand why you've using that argument. Is it because you're used to only playing Invuln? Invuln does mock -def because it has a toggle that increases defense the more mobs there are around, plus high resists, plus DDR. But why ignore defense? Or at least not aim for good numbers? The second thing that screws resist sets is that they eat every single debuff in the game. -rech, -end, -rec, -acc and more. Any faction that does debuffs but does not do -def specifically meets the defense wall and saves the tanker from having to take the slathering of debuffs. The only thing I can think of is that you don't want to depend on ATO stacks nor in having to using Barrier. Which is perfectly valid. I said my view point on the matter. 95% of the game? No reason to maximize things. A Lady Grey TF? A Qhan (or whatever it is spelled)? Even a Lord Recluse TF? No need, just play the game, 40% defense and 85% is enough, we don't need more defenses for those, we need more damage. Then there's the 5% which wants care and all buffs on and that's when Barrier comes. Even in the ITF I don't throw Barrier on CD and just use it when my HP is dipping like mad despite being at 90% and my heal already on CD.

Yes. But resistances are too easy to raise for resist sets. Is there are Tanker resist set that doesn't easily cap resistances? The fun challenge comes in getting them up, getting good recharge, good EPS, defenses up as an extra layer, then maximize damage as well.

It takes doing the ITF on a leveling build with 0% of it to really appreciate it. But even at 45% I got slowed enough to be killed by the ambush. Though they are a bit much to handle thanks to the -def and being so many enemies. 85% should be enough.

Some more optimizing. Sacrificed some EPS (not visible in Mids since it does not show Performance Shifter's endurance proc and I have removed two from the build) for more -slow resist. I've been tinkering the endurance costs more and more so I feel it's fine since we have blue insps, we have recovery serum, but -recharge comes from us or incarnates, and when we get slowed we die. So while the very first original build had 45% -slow this third iteration now has reached a quite beefy 85% recharge debuff resistance. Should be enough to tank the ocean of khelds at the end of the ITF's first mission. EPS is at 3.75 (without Consume clicked in Mids since that buff only lasts 15 seconds) and down to 1.59 EPS consumption. Usual 40% S/L defense and 77-78% resistances so that two ATO stacks = 85% + Barrier puts them at 90%. Anything not difficult enough to warrant Barrier isn't content that needs 45% defense and 90% resistances.

If you slot one -KB IO your woes are solved. Two if you want to be extreme. I play with just one. They cost 1-2 mill. I don't use temp powers either, but yeah.

! *general forum population holding me back by the arms* No no, don't! 😄

Do it if you want to, but other than orange salvage there is no point in keeping any other salvage. You get more than you could ever use and more keeps on dropping. It's stuff worth 100 to 5000 inf.

Same please.

Saying it is about your feelings and you do not like seeing people haring off and soloing is not an insult... Facepalms and etc. Anyway, I said I would not argue and here I am. My proposal stands. Random people joining in the TF ensures it will not be biased either way since we will be just two out of eight. Accept it, or not, I said what I had to say.

You obviously do not know me if you think I do internet insults. My posting history for the past two years is available for perusal. I can do better than that though. If you play on Everlasting we can pick a random TF (Synapse takes too long but it's the best showcase because of the kill alls that can't be rushed through). If you don't then I can transfer to your server and we can run two of the same TF back to back and in one of them I will 'solo' the appropriate parts. Notice I don't say speedrun. Speedrunning is not my thing and not what is in question here.

For the future remember you can get that badge in about 15-20 minutes by using the Steel Canyon Pandora arc TF (red book icon on the map). Put it to -1x8 with no bosses and Fakes will spawn as -1 lieutenants which can be two shot. It avoids the bubbling they do. After killing all the Fakes just relog. Each map has an average of 25 of them. Unfortunately if a second person joins they turn into -1 bosses which gives them enough HP to bubble on.

It doesn't hurry things up, but I'm not going to argue with you further. This is another one of those arguments where I can show up with mathematical proof and it will be dismissed because 'MY FEELINGS MATTER!'. This is not about the team being faster with one person going left instead of right because the team obliterates a spawn leaving people animating skills that hit corpses, this is about you not liking them doing that. It's based on emotions, not facts. You don't like them to do that. Stop coating the argument with altruistic tones that the team is missing out by having that Scrapper or Brute haring off. There is hardly any objective that the team splitting up will not achieve it faster. Be it kill all, find a random clicky or find a boss. I've played this game long enough and have been the one haring off. I have also played this game for a long time as a Tanker so I do not hare off leaving my squishies undefended. In either case as a TF-leveler there is a distinct improvement in times when someone does part of the content solo. Suddenly watch Synapse not taking 1:30 (or in one infamous case for me, two hours) but rather taking 1:10. If I'm playing with my usual friend who also splits from the team watch Synapse go down to one hour. Now with all of this said it remains a game, a hobby we do in our spare time. If it bothers you that people do some of these things (which is perfectly acceptable. My own pet peeve is Controllers spamming mass immobilizes/AoE fears/AoE stuns, or players spamming knockbacks because 'it helps' *narrator: none of it, in fact does help*) then make a team where you state it: steam rolling team doing X. Don't join if you're going to go ahead soloing stuff. Warning, you WILL be kicked off the team. Voila, your problem has now been solved. To be fair I could do with my teams and state I do not accept Controllers or that people who knockback will get one warning to stop and then they will be kicked, but I don't. It's a pet peeve not a phobia, I can live with the small annoyance of mass immobilizes/fears/stuns.

Bill does have a point though. It's the old game designer adage of difficulty = more HP instead of game mechanics. WoW had this a couple years back when they changed leveling (not the most recent where they made timewalking leveling which was well received) where players were 'leveling too fast' and thus things were tweaked. Turns out the tweaks were giving more HP to mobs. Not more mechanis, not hitting harder, just more HP, and the players argued (with good reason) that there was no extra challenge, all it did was slow people down. So in that sense yes, there is no extra challenge. But in a full team the extra defense does not matter since the enemies have such low HP compared to the overwhelming tsunami that is incarnated IOed players going ham. All it takes is a couple of hits for things to die and with 8 AoEs everything dies. It will only slow soloists because the damage output is reduced to x1. But on the other hand I'm not on Bill's side that TFs ought to cater even more to soloists. They already do that. That's what the difficulty slider is for and what allows pretty much any AT to solo a TF with a minimum of a build. +4x8 with or without any other attributes is for the bragging rights and the harder it is the more bragging rights.

Br00t Ice/Fire Armor. Full incarnates, no clickies used, no -res procs. 3:20 average.

It's being efficient. No, trust me, it's not a personal insult lobbed at your face. No, it's not about secretly thinking that people will be looking at the screen and sighing wistfully thinking how cool those people are. 🙂 Eight people are steamrolling content. If the content is to find something or kill everything then the main group going left and someone going right is speeding things up. Unless they are the meat shield. Or the content is actually hard. But the content is rarely hard if one person is capable of soloing it, innit?

How about not trying to interfere with those who like to tinker to keep on tinkering and those who don't know or care about it, not?

Same. Smelling shenanigans since we're talking of shaving an hour and half or more.

So you see @Bill Z Bubba, at least with this one it's not 10% better damage and much worse mitigation than a Tanker 😜 Inb4Boppercorrectsthatfinishingoneminuteearlieris10%actualdamage

Went for a spin in the test server. All incarnates, no clickies. Pylon time: - 3:24 - 3:19 It's an improvement over the Tanker version of the same build who averages out in the 4:15 - 4:20 but it's nothing fantastic compared to Scrapper times. I made some more tests changing Alpha to Musculature 45% and changing the slotting around but the best times were still 3:13. Roughly calculating the times and applying my trustee percentage calculator the Brute does about 25% more damage than the Tanker (actually it finishes a pylon 25% faster though I'm calling it 'more damage'). In exchange it has 17.5% less E/N resistances with otherwise both having the same numbers other than HP. The Tanker version ends with around 2.5k HP and the Brute with 2k which is still substantial but mostly unimportant: as long as the character does not die it does not matter how much HP was left. I'll leave a slightly edited build. About the same everything. It trades 15% -recharge resist (still leaves it at a decent 75%) for slightly higher E/N (67.4% without Barrier, so 72.6% with) and one extra damage proc in Burn. Burn loves procs but this will show itself more in regular gameplay than on a pylon. I'm still a bit worried about endurance costs and how it may either require to play with Recovery Serums or change to Musculature 33 for the extra 0.30 and better Consume. Intuition is a bit of an affectation anyway, but I'll see once I've collected the accolades. Burn has slightly better numbers than shown because of a bug with the Superior Brute Damage/Recharge. It should be:

Brute version of the Brunker. The build is a study of 'but'. On one hand not having to take Frozen Fists is good since it's a pretty mediocre power that isn't even needed once Freezing Touch is obtained, but, not having a filler for leveling or exemplaring means relying on brawl + origin power (honestly not that bad thanks to Fury but only during leveling. It stops being impactful at around... I want to say Synapse level, and is close to useless even if we exemplar down. At level 1 or so the origin power may hit for 20 damage which is a lot but a level 50 exemplared to level 1 has it hitting for something like 6 damage). Fury really pumps up the damage while under level 20, but, Burn only opens at 28 instead of 18 meaning only one AoE for Posi and Synapse, also no Fiery Embrace until 35 which makes the damage difference between Tanker and Brute pretty narrow until then. Taking Sands of Mu is an option too but it honestly feels terrible when I use it. The damage difference between Tanker and Brute is pretty narrow while leveling. Burn at 18 beats Fury. When Brutes get Burn Tankers get Fiery Embrace. It takes Brutes getting Fiery Embrace at 35 for the damage difference to finally settle in. After trying to exemplar and missing Burn too I am of a mind that Synapse and under I'll take the Tanker and Yin and above I'll take the Brute. The Br00t does more damage, but, not overwhelmingly so. On the other hand it is squishier than the Tanker, but, not overwhelmingly so either. A less measurable part of the equation is how some of the extra damage is also traded by narrow and smaller AoEs. It does have a hole in E/N where at best it only reaches 68%. Which doesn't seem so bad until fighting the cysts. Where even at just +2 they killed the Brute twice. To be fair I was leveling and had 0% -recharge but (at the time) 56% resist and defenses being ablated was death. Ultimately it is not nearly as squishy as I was expecting. Creative slotting and IOs makes it reach the same 40% to S/L as the tanker, and 85% to S/L, which then relies on Barrier for the last 5%. So far all similar as the Tanker version. As mentioned above the main difference is that the best E/N I managed (while juggling everything else including trying to reach decent recharge) was only 63%. With 5% from Barrier it makes about 68%. That's not 90% and it can be felt. In the early levels this was noticeable as low as Synapse where I had to kite and use Rest unlike with the Tankers. Also felt in places like Yin where I got whittled pretty hard and had to kite a bit one or two times to give time for Healing Flames time to recover. This is not a Tanker experience but obviously they are sturdier. But it does embody the Brunker spirit: have just enough survival to survive and then pour the rest on damage. I will give it a go in the test server so see how it behaves all incarnated out. After the experience with the cysts I went out of my way to grab more -recharge protection and ended with a rather beefy 90%. I traded 10% recharge for it and that makes for a worse Hasten than the Tanker with it being 140 seconds. But I find this typical of Brute builds since they strive so hard to slot resistances where the Tanker relies on better numbers and the ATO and can afford the luxury of recharge sets. Overall the combo works as well with a Br00t as with a Tanker. Ice Patch helps surviving when needed and more damage means killing faster. In a full team there might be no difference between faster deleting of spawns and buffs.

If you mean worthwhile by best, then yes, it's worthwhile.

Leveling build.