aethereal

Well, I mean, it was two years ago. FWIW, DB/Inv is a good example of a powerset combo that doesn't really make a ton of sense to do as a Brute. You'll almost certainly have a better build as either a Scrapper or a Tanker. That is: It's an armor set that doesn't have a damage aura (damage auras go well with Brute fury). It's an armor set that does have a taunt aura on a Scrapper. It's an armor set that has a heavy defense component so Scrappers don't give up a lot of durability on it. It's an armor set that really can take advantage of high Tanker base values since you want to bid up both defense and resistance on it. It's a melee set that heavily features a damage add, which is better on Tanks than Brutes and MUCH better on Scrappers than both.

In fairness, recharge enhancement, both local and global, are very much a thing. I don't think it's that meaningful to talk about the unenhanced recharge values of bio clicks. But I agree with the overall point that it's not super hard to give a "click heavy" set (even one that's substantially more click-heavy than bio) enough offensive boost that it makes up for the lost cast time.

Let me throw this out there, not that I actually expect to change anyone's mind, but: If you're playing Homecoming at this point, you've probably got like 10 years+++ of City of Heroes under your belt. Homecoming drops like maybe one new piece of content per year if you're lucky What's everyone on, their 50th Scrapper? More? You've done every mission in this game. You've probably done most of them 10+ times. Are you sure that what you need is more simplicity in play? One understands the appeal of a set-and-forget armor when you're on your first, or fifth, armored class But aren't there a lot of you out there who'd like a play experience that is more engaged and thoughtful, not less? Clicky armors add a layer of tactical decision making that, for me, I became more and more appreciative of as I got more play experience

Everyone is of course entitled to their personal opinions. If a player really values a taunt aura, then they really value a taunt aura, and that's fine. But, like, taunt auras aren't that big a deal. I have leveled several Stalkers to 50 and several aura-less Scrappers to 50, and also some Brutes and Tankers and taunt-aura Scrappers, generally at high multipliers on team size, almost entirely solo, and it's just... not that big a deal. Is it nice to have a taunt aura? I guess. There are a few enemies like Warwolves who run away a lot and they're frustrating. For the most part, it's not very noticeable in play. The constant chorus of a few players who come in to say that they absolutely need a taunt aura to consider playing a set sort of strikes me as like if I went to every thread on Stone Armor and Shield to say, "I find the aesthetics of Stone Armor/Shield objectionable and I will not use these armors." Like, it's true. And I'm certainly entitled to that opinion. But it also feels pretty personal and not really worth trying to tell people millions of times about.

I don't worry about recharge on Build Up with Stalkers -- in general, you'll get the power back through the global proc of recharge build up on your attacks before it naturally recharges. As a result, you definitely want Gaussian's Chance to Build Up on it, because Stalkers use Build Up a lot.

I believe that Brimstone works differently from Reach for the Limit. This is the Brimstone Proc: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=redirects.stone_armor.brimstone_proc_tanker&at=tanker As far as I can tell -- and I definitely may be reading this wrong -- it always adds the fire damage, but the amount of damage varies based on a PPM-like formula (so less for powers that are fast to activate and/or high area).

Reach for the Limit is amusingly complicated. The basic power does nothing (that's why in-game power explanation doesn't show you the values). This is the power that procs the power that you listed: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=blaster_support.martial_manipulation.build_up_proc&at=blaster It's PPM is 0.67, and it applies to all attacks I believe.

I really enjoyed fighting Malta with Electric Armor and just being unconcerned with Sappers.

Well, perhaps I can offer some relevant experience, because, while I haven't played a ton of either SR or Willpower, I did play, back-to-back mostly-solo-to-50-and-beyond, seeking out some challenging content, the following characters: A spines/bio brute An ice/bio stalker A bio/claws tanker An energy/bio scrapper And Bio, as it happens, shares both the Willpower weakness to DDR and lacks protection to exotic mez types such as, yes, Confuse and Terrorize. I did get Terrorized and Confused on occasion. But I got defense debuffed a lot more (because defense debuffs are a feature of a huge number of mobs), and while being Terrorized and Confused was kind of annoying, getting defense debuffed was a lot more likely to actually faceplant me. I particularly found Praetorian Clockworks a big pain in the butt, because not only would they debuff my defense, they'd also floor my regeneration, so I'd just faceplant to them with every spawn unless I was very on top of my game -- and because I liked the Praetorian Invasion storyline and wanted to play it and solo the Praetorian AVs, I played against Praetorian Clocks a lot. In contrast, when I did that storyline with a /Ninjutsu scrapper a little later, Praetorian Clocks were no big deal. But beyond Praetorian Clocks, I also found that, for example, Battle Maiden was very tough for me to deal with as a /Bio character, because, yes, her defense debuffs. I had to eat a lot of purples to keep my defense high. When I was fighting Scirocco, I was unable to defeat him because his summoned whirlwind debuffed me until I realized it was ground only and fought him in the air. Same problem with Positron, and in general with Radiation Blast enemies. Don't get me wrong. Having no DDR was not, for a Bio character, a crippling weakness. I roflstomped the vast majority of content. But if someone had come down from heaven and said, "You can either have a bunch of DDR or Confuse and Terrorize protection," I definitely would've chosen DDR.

So, like: Super Reflexes has Confused protection. Slightly weirdly, it's in the first toggle, Focused Fighting, not where we generally think of SR's status protection being, the click Practiced Brawler. The result is that say the Succubus Come Hither confused that I assume is what @Lazarillo is suggesting makes Circle of Thorns an unattractive enemy group for SR does nothing to a SR character. I have to ask here, @Lazarillo, are these ideas you have based on play experience? I don't have a ton of SR play experience, but it's generally a highly performing set, and, I mean, it's true that every set has its weaknesses, but when you put a big laundry list of enemies and suggest that SR is bad against all of them, I just question that holistically.

Sorry, I wasn't clear: what is a thing you feel that you can't actually do in game better with WP than SR or shield? Like, is there an enemy group that you feel better about with WP? A TF? An arc?

What do you feel it is that WP can do that shield and SR can't?

Adding to the chorus, Brute Parry stacks fine. Tanker Parry does not stack.

Mez protection doesn't work in PvP. The way that mezzes work in PvP is REALLY different from how it works in PvE. Everyone -- even armored classes that are pretty much immune to mezzes in PvE -- will get mezzed in PvP, but only for very short amounts of time (for Dom/Troller holds I think it's 4 seconds base?), and then they have a cooldown period in which they're immune to mezzing.

Are you sure you aren't assuming 100% uptime for the force feedback proc here? If you have the power it's slotted in "turned on" in MIDS, it will show you +100% recharge, but in fact FF proc is almost always low uptime. Lots of people drastically overrate their recharge because of this.