Sovera

Some things have changed with the patches. On the whole Fire Armor is still an offfense based armor and it is now more durable. But despite Burn having been tweaked to be (mostly) back on par with the bugged version it is (mostly) not worth using in a ST situation. This may require testing on a per case basis. I'm messing around with Brutes and dropping builds piece meal into the forums where they will get lost. Might as well make a second compilation thread. Maybe I'll call it the Branker. Yeeeeeeeahno. Anyway. Perennial Claws/Fire. Can't go wrong with it. Might be better on a Tanker? That's because Claws' Follow-up work better on a Tanker. But also because by level 20 a Tanker has Spin -and- Burn -and- Follow-up and the team is merely following the ball of scratchy flaming death. StJ/Fire. I remember getting annoyed with the piano rotation because of Crushing Impact's rotation. I've gone around this with a simpler Crushing Impact, Burn, Heavy Blow, Rib Cracker, Heavy Blow. This leaves a one second ish gap. Adding another Heavy Blow before Burn fixes it. Again a Tanker might get more out of this as Spinning Strike has an anemic radius making it act more like a cone than a fireball effect. Tankers, of course, get 50% more radius. This build is not bad at all in my opinion. The FF procs in Spinning Strike work about as well as Dragon Tail in Martial Arts and just like Dragon Tail the soft CC is invaluable. MA/Fire. It's nearly as good as the Tanker version with 45% to melee/ranged/AoE and 90% to S/L (hole in E/N though), but the first AoE comes out at 26. Cringe. Can't see myself leveling something to 26 without AoEs and always have that Damocles sword if wishing to exemplar. At least a Tanker gets Burn at 18 which fills the AoE needs. Savage/Fire. Hemmorhage still hasn't been fixed is still undertunned and not worth taking other than for the cool factor, but the animations look good and a build that boasts of -three- PbAoEs will thrive in the thick of combat. Stone/Fire. I'm not touching this until the patch hits (and then I will have to rebuild it to include Fault (assuming the devs kindly give it the same code that allows Burn/Footstomp/Tremor/etc to be used while Hover-ing near the ground)) because again, first AoE comes at 28. Bless the current devs who understand a set shouldn't level without AoEs! Tanker again gets Burn at 18 so (until the patch at least) a Tanker version will be easier to level. Rad/Fire. Amazing passive AoE that kills a group while a boss is being punched. This build uses Devastating Blow but I sing the praises of the Contaminated Strike variant over here. It will do less damage in pylon tests but achieve the same result in practical tests without 2.9 second animation locks. EM/Fire. What I'm currently playing. Blows enemies into a thin pink mist and does not lag behind in AoE. My current main because why -not-? Downsides? What are those? Ice/Fire. What I consider the best blend in offense and defense. The lower damage is offset by Brute and by Fire Armor. At 3:20 it has nearly a minute worse times in pylons than the EM's 2:30 (but EM is a beast) but one minute better times than the Tanker version. No -res procs involved. For a new player who wants to be safe but be punchy this build is my advice. Just start fights with Ice Patch. DM/Fire. To be honest Touch of Fear is kinda weak (just compare it to Shadow Maul's damage) and the contortions to reach the goals while slotting it may not be worth it in a build that already has Burn to complement Shadow Maul. But, welp, here we go.

Just made this for myself so I might as well share. It's minmaxed to make use of the scaling resist IO and Barrier to finish capping S/L defenses and resistances. ST chain is something like Crushing Impact, Burn, Heavy Blow, Rib Cracker, Heavy Blow. It's not perfect since there's about a second to start the loop, but slots being so sparse as usual I didn't feel like adding another attack. It can be circuited by changing the rotation to Crushing Impact, Heavy Blow, Burn, Heavy Blow, Rib Cracker, Heavy Blow. It's not terrible to spam Heavy Blows since it has the FF proc in there.

I'm biased so my opinion is thus biased. As someone who only buys amplifiers once (but who -always- buys them) and never again past level 1 I am obviously in the opinion that those initial 8 hours (that usually last me until I reach Manticore) are more important than them not dripping down at level 50... obviously because I don't use them at level 50. Some sort of compromise would be good since levels 50 are people too though we could always argue levels 50 make a lot of money and can afford the amplifies ticking down. But rather than diminish a level 50 annoyance at seeing their amplifiers ticking down a compromise, yes. Not sure what would be satisfactory though. But the 'worry' that someone makes a new alt, buys 8 hours, and then toggles them on and off just when doing TFs, seems a bit minor, no? It still takes someone making a new alt, leveling it for 3-5 hours, collecting accolades, slot and respec... to save buying amplifiers for 8 hours? Dunno, I can understand the point of view, but even if it happens it's going to be a once-per-character thing. Can't imagine people making an industry out of it. The more common worry seems to be that a character will make that large investment and then dole the use of the amplifiers to make them last. Can the amplifiers actually be paused via a command or does it take doing a TF with the 'no temp powers' option? If it takes being in TF/flashback mode with that challenge toggled on then that character will need to live 24/7 under a TF they started solo so that the amplifiers would not run down. They never again team for whatever group activity because they would leave TF mode and the amplifiers would once again start ticking down. I'm not going to say I can't see people doing that or having a dedicated alt for the effect, but since amplifiers don't run down while logged off a dedicated alt already achieves this by logging off. My opinion is that leaving the prices as are while keeping the new code will not impact the economy negatively.

*sad Fault-not-usable-while-flying noises*

The short answer is : - If you need a panic button OR 5% defense + resistance to complete a goal, then Barrier 120 seconds. - If you have endurance or not enough recharge, then Ageless 120 seconds. I realize this does not answer your question(s) but it's an obtuse system and I feel, IMO, after having looked and poked at it, that it's better to just ask which is best at what and then pick it without going deep into the mechanics. Long answer: - All the numbers stack. If you look at Mids or in game (you can right click the powers and then click on the Info tab) you'll see a row of 'Gives X for Y seconds'. They all stack together. But once the duration ends it removes itself. So in the case of Barrier it starts as a huge boost for the first ten seconds, then a bit less for the first 30 seconds. Then less until the first minute has passed. Then the last minute of the two minute duration it gives 5% to defense and resistances. Once the two minutes are over it can be used right away making for a permanent 5% to a build. It's usually used when you know there will be an ambush, or about to go fight an AV, or if you see your HP going down to the red and your heal was already used.

Forums have double XP going on. Already went from newbie to rookie.

I guess lowbies getting 8 hours of amps was too OP. Or something.

They would have to rework the whole Forum PvP system since I got warnings (do those count as badges?) for 'attacking' other users.

A rare case of managing that a power is not taken on all ATs 😄

To make it worse all the actual numbers are terribad. Interface only has one use and it's denting an AV's regen via Degenerative.

I feel like in a P2W game. What ever I do I get a pop up awarding me an achievement.

We know. We have 20-30 pages of why. Hot salty tears at Rage not being stacked anymore and trying to nudge the devs into keeping some fashion of 180% damage. The whole set needs a revamp from the ground kinda like Stone Melee has.

Not really. In my opinion. What Tankers have is self-sufficiency in reaching certain defensive numbers and a bigger HP pool. Brutes suffer from having no such boosts. But they have the same caps. So the number of buffers the new difficulty will attract means the Tankers will get less out of them while the Brutes will get more, but in the end both will be at 45%+ defense and 90% resists. A case can be made that with -debuffs- from enemies that the Tankers having bigger numbers will work out better for them but it's not -that- much of a difference. I can for example look between my Fire Armor Brutes and Tanker builds. The Tankers reach 90% to S/L/E/N without much fuss. And they can reach 40% to S/L more easily. By easily read that I can proc attacks instead of dedicating my attacks to chasing defense or resistance bonuses. But the Brute does nearly the same. It has a 30-ish% hole in E/N resistances that would require either a Thermal or a Sonic to fill but the same defenses. The difference is that I need to dedicate my attacks which makes me do less damage than I could... because of this my Energy Melee/Fire Armor Brute only To be honest I would have to wait and see but I think the squishy Fire Armor Brute/Tanker may have reached its end as a main tank and will only join as a off-tank or DPS. In the case of the Brute it serves pretty well for the purpose even if Scrappers do more... because poor Scrappers and their 75% resists. Especially the sets with agro auras that get the attention of the buffed enemies. That said Shield is probably going to be verrrrry popular in the future.

I'm not ASKING for anything, my dude. I don't even HAVE characters with Super Strength. Eesh, calm your (undead) tits. Of course we can't have double stacked Rage (a whooping 180% damage buff) and no downsides. We had dozens and dozens of pages the last time there was an attempt to balance Rage because of this, and, like I said last time, I have no characters with SS other than one I did while testing the combo with FA and I didn't even finish leveling it because the Rage crash became execrable. So I am just a spectator. I, for one, also rally behind the idea of a toggle. Better than a damage buff it should just add a % of damage as extra Smash or something, but %damage is fine too. Just make it a toggle.

I don't grap why there is a schism between defensive and offensive toggles. Defensive toggles suppress when CCed. Offensive toggles drop and need to be retoggled. Why? What does distinction add? What's it's purpose? What does it add to the game? Because-it-has-always-been-like-that needs to be looked at.

Who runs Rage without stacking it, Snarkums? Once stacking Rage the crash happens once a minute.

No, you're right, the Rage crash is annoying and a solid hit to self-defense. Not, not, of course, against -easy- enemies. Easy enemies remain easy with or without crash. But anything that's chewing our Tankers up is going to smile in beatific gratitude at seeing us doing to ourselves -20% to all defenses. To me there is no excuse to be nearly self-CCed for 10 seconds every minute either. It's just not fun or interesting, and much like (current) Stone Armor Super-Strength does not have enough perks to warrant the downsides. Now if people -like- SS and don't mind the downsides, then yeah, sure, have fun, it's a game, having fun is the goal.

You don't. No one -needs- Taunt. But it's useful so many people still do. This is something you must get a feel for yourself. I personally don't.

Two level 50 +5 recharge puts recharge at ED cap so a third slot adds nothing. Except when exemplaring since the +5 get 'nerfed' to +0 before even the scaling starts.

Well, fun is subjective. In this case the 'fun' is in throwing big omfg punches which is something Claws does not. EM blooms much later though where Claws is ready to rock and roll by level 8. Even if non-subjectively it needs more levels to get more slots it's still a set that has a strong AoE and a complete ST chain under level 20.

*gentle hypnotic noises for Fault to have the same code of Burn/Footstomp/Tremor (all attacks that roleplay needing the ground) allowing it to be used with Hover*

I understand you are working under certain constraints, Bopper. A certain, shall we say, budget. And that being 'too good' will surpass the budget and not be allowed even if you wanted to. But unfortunately the feedback so far has been clear: this is not useful, and it is expensive in a build's currency which are slots. So investing time in this endeavor is going to be a waste. When things are said like 'it's good to have options' it implies the options are good. And right now this is going the Acid Vial route. I am in no way against you or raging that 'devs don't listen' because I understand the constraints you are working under.

Crushing Impact for the raw stats. Follow-up is the linchpin of the attack chain and needs as much recharge as it can muster since the attack chain of Follow-up, Slash, Focus, relies on Follow-up being recharged so it can loop. Without the recharge it needs a fourth attack to cover the gap. The damage procs are hurt by the recharge, but I'm still slotting them in for that small extra boost of damage. The reason Brawl is slotted is for the -recharge, and both sprints for the 5% S/L resistance total. There's probably better ways to slot things though, I'm not laying down gospel.

Made this for someone and so decided to post it: Barrier to finish capping S/L defense and resists. This is the leveling/cheap build. Remember to buy ATTUNED enhancements (/ah - Enhancements - Attuned) with the exception of the generic IOs like recharge in Hasten which is in /ah - Enhancements - Crafted - Other. For a few leveling tips consult the Brunker link in my signature and look at the leveling builds. It gives some ideas on slotting order and how and where to slot in order. Once at 50 the ATOs (Brute's Fury and Unrelenting Fury sets) can be made attuned by buying Catalysts from the /ah.

Positron was the same when I tested my Fire Armor Tanker. Those things could do with fixing though they are not a huge problem in a team with buffs, debuffs, heals and agro sharing.