Brutal Justice

If I have completed a story arc during normal play, is it possible to do the same arc again in Ouroboros? If it’s possible do I get reduced merit returns? If I didn’t complete it during normal play and do it with flashback do I get full merit reward? How about task forces, if I run the same task force with the same character do I get reduced returns? Thanks

I only have a Mac so I don’t have access to Pines. Can somebody help me with a build? I was trying to do it on paper but I can’t tell if I’m exceeding caps or not. What I am looking for is a build that prioritizes Resistance, primarily to s,l,e, Max HP, and Regen. Defense and +recharge are mostly just bonus or something to add after hitting Res caps and the HP cap. I will have the +HP accolades. Thank you for your time and work!

How do you get the Super Packs and Enhancement Catalysts?

How do you get the superior version of these? I guess I don’t even know how to get the regular ones. Are these drops? Do you use something to convert them to superior? Use merits to buy them? What are all the methods to get the regular ATOs and the superior ATOs? Thanks

Brutal Justice of the Wrecking Crew. I see you Dremster and Destitude!

Add some +hp to fast healing and some absorb to resilience is probably all regen needs to be modernized. With more hp your passive regen will be improved and absorb will act like a +hp to eat an alpha strike and then act like regen after taking damage and allow your passive regen to get more mileage. These two additions will also help with -rech debuffs since they are unaffected by such things. I think that’s all it really needs, no reason to get overly complicated. And port it to tanks. Then NERF REGEN! after those tweaks. In that order.

I am thinking about making a stone/spines tank. I was wondering about other people’s thoughts for this. I don’t remember exactly how granite works, are you able to run tough and weave with granite? Are they even needed? Would mud-pots and quills slotted for damage help with the -rech and -dam. Too end heavy? Spring attack for comic relief and mobility? Roll as a brute instead? Just wanted to get some thoughts or gameplay experiences from people who have tried it. Thanks

But not katana because I don’t like to run like I’m constipated. Is there something that each one of these sets does better than the other? Does warmace have the best aoe? Axe have the best mix? Broadsword best single target and utility? Why would you pick one over the other? Is parry the only reason other than weapon skins? Does damage type matter? I really want to make one of these three but I can’t decide. Let me know your reasons. Thanks

Yeah I was thinking of a one time click +absorb power. A refreshing absorb click or toggle would effectually be like a +hp power at full health and a +regen power after that.

I have never really thought about it because I never really knew the current state of brutes. I don’t think taking anything away from brutes would be right. I don’t think tanks need any of their personal stats buffed. That would leave me with some sort of benefit to the team, which I feel would be in line with a tanker mentality. Inherent leadership of some sort. A smaller inherent vengeance type power if somebody dies on your team. Something team oriented. They can solo just fine already so I wouldn’t be too worried about it not doing anything there. Gauntlet is already useless solo so no big deal.

My maths may be wrong but I will try :) If a /sr has a 10% chance of getting hit. And a regen has a 95% chance. If there are 10 incoming hits for 100 damage a piece. That’s 1000 dam. My guesswork maths For /sr 1000dam x .1 equals 100 damage received. From those 10 hits. 300 absorb minus 100 leaves you with 200 more absorb points. For /regen 1000dam x .95 equals 950 damage received. From those 10 hits. 800 absorb minus 950 leaves you with 150 less hp. That’s a 350 hp + absorb difference. My main point is, other than the +hp from dull pain, the absorb has no synergy with the rest of the set. On that sentinel, the absorb is making the regen from fast healing and integration worthless against the small stuff. Against the big stuff the regen from those powers isn’t going to help much either. Either the absorb mechanic keeps you up or you’re clicking heals, which tends to be how regen already plays with fast healing and integration. I suppose the continual absorb refresh acts like a regen effect which also lets your passive regen get more value. Just came to that realization while typing this. I wouldn’t want to lose any passive regen for the added absorb though. Even though I just realized that, I left the whole post to show my thought process on the synergy

An invulnerable brute can be mere points within as tanky as an invulnerable tank. Hitting defense soft cap is pretty easy, perma dull pain is not too difficult at the same time which brings your hp into the 3200 range. This thread also shows how easily incarnates can hit the 90% res cap as well. A brute that can hit the same caps as a tank on its own is just as tanky. Gauntlet doesn’t provide any more Aggro control than a brute can have. At low levels it does but not once the brute starts throwing aoes. If a tank and a brute are both punching the same target the brute will take the aggro. If the tank taunts, the brute taunts, same tools, brute takes the aggro. If the tank can keep the aggro off the brute, who is he keeping it off of? Only the brute, who doesn’t need the tanker. The brute will far outdamage the tank. Sure a tank might hit 75% def instead of 64% in the build above, but that extra defense doesn’t do anything. 90% resistance is a hard cap. The tank can do it easier but the 15% difference in base resistance is nothing for that incarnate power. That energy aura build had in the 60’s resistance to everything. A tank version might have 3 more points of resistance and 500 more hp? Trivial. I love tanks, but that build showed me there is nothing a tank can do a brute can’t do with more damage.

I don’t think absorb is a good mechanic for regen. Absorb on a defense toon benefits greatly from the defense and fewer hits landing. I am unsure if the same can be said for resist based sets, but I would guess that it can. Absorb on regen wouldn’t benefit at all from the entire rest of the set. You can’t click heal the absorb or regen the absorb. It may be a great mechanic for other sets but not regen. Simply adding +max hp would be a much better option because it also increases your hp/s regen. A perma dullpain regen brute with 3200 hp can be quite sturdy simply because you can eat those alpha strikes a little easier. Yes with recharge that high your sustain also goes up because you can click heal more often, but in normal mob to mob play on SO’s with hasten, reconstruction is up for nearly every mob already. So in my experience, some +max hp would help quite a bit without greatly changing how the set plays. I would take IH as a toggle though

It looks like once you’re into the incarnate stuff that brutes completely trivialize tanks even more than they already did with IO’s. That’s unfortunate.

A regen tank is what I want the most. I am very pleased with this dev teams powerset proliferation and that makes me hopeful.

I can understand all the def from the set bonuses. It’s the ability to pick up somewhere around 70 resistance to all damage and actually hit the hard cap for smash and lethal. So it’s incarnate stuff that’s driving the resist and regen? I never really got into the incarnate system before shut down.

You were able to cap resistance, have that much recharge, way over soft cap defense, and have that much regen just from set bonuses? Or is there a temp power running that is boosting some of those numbers? I don’t have pines and haven’t gotten back into IO’s yet but if those numbers are purely from pool powers and set bonuses then IO’s have truly gotten out of control.

Part of the magic of this game for me is the diversity of all of the power sets. Altitis is a real medical condition and the only way to treat it is to scratch until you bleed. I really hope the new devs exercise great care as to not homogenize all of us. I fear that buffs are coming in from all directions. Insta snipe is not as satisfying for me as old snipe, same with assassin strike. They make great attacks and boost my toons performance but the satisfaction, the magic, is lost. I love being back and I love the level of powerset proliferation we have. All I want is a regen tank! There are sets that underperform and could use some numbers tweaks. However, I am not that into more global types of changes being made. The IO system is great and I think works well because it’s optional. That being said, I generally don’t softcap defense on toons unless they actually have a defense powerset. I understand that hitting the softcap makes any toon extremely more durable, but again, I don’t want all of my toons to play the same. I want people to be able to play how they want to play. Global changes to powers, archetypes, or even system wide should be done under extreme caution. Even inherent fitness removed some level of diversity. Quality of life changes to things like salvage storage, sg bases, auction house mechanics can be nice. However, I feel like changes to power mechanics is very dangerous. Adding diversity is a great thing, for me, removing diversity is very bad. It’s the bumps and turns in a road that make driving fun. Straighten and flatten the road and it gets boring real quick.

I wish I had enough time in game to run the numbers myself, instead I have much more time to lurk around on here. Reading a post in the stalker forum I noticed blood stacks do not increase the DoT damage from the attacks. If blood doesn’t increase the DoT portion I would wager fury, and any other source of +dam, also provides no increase. I wouldn’t be shocked if even enhancements didn’t increase the DoT. The set has to be balanced around the DoT mechanic. If there is no way to increase the DoT, then as you lvl, enhance, and build fury you fall farther and farther behind every other set. Their numbers also showed the DoT was unaffected by criticals as well. Hemorrhage actually looked like it is working properly, and as a result, has the potential to hit harder than assassin strike. Working on a stalker at least, I think I have seen several other posts stating the damage was poor and they were skipping the power. If this is indeed what is happening with the DoT, then that is the cause for its poor performance. If having unenhanceable DoT is by design, then the set would have to be far superior at lvl 1 and meh at lvl 32, or, mediocre at lvl 1 and poor at lvl 32. Would anybody be able to confirm these suspicions about the DoT?

I have been trying to plan some power combinations for new toons using paragon wiki and I just noticed that there are several differences from the wiki to live. Shred was supposed to consume blood and thirst was supposed to be a heal to name a few differences. Maybe the set was intended to be balanced around a couple missing mechanics and that is why it’s perceived to be under performing.

This has been a very interesting read. However, I feel like I would need more numbers to fully compare claws and savage. I don’t have access to the numbers right now. I would need to know the damage per activation of each attack, and the damage per endurance of said powers, while also factoring in aoe. Just seeing the endurance cost of each attack gives me very little information on what is actually occurring. If a 4 end move does 4 damage while a 6 end move does 7 damage, then the 6 end move is more efficient dam/end wise. Then also factor in dam/act for kill speed efficiency all while also considering aoe vs single target. I am enjoying this thread but without the raw data, “feelings” doesn’t tell me much. I would post some of those numbers but I don’t have access to them right now.

Does the brute version of storm kick give +def like the tank version? Thanks

Devices is probably my favorite secondary but the last time I played one was when field operative was cloaking device. I usually skipped the power because I like to be able to see the costume I spent a ton of time designing. Since the changes, field operative looks like a must pick power. Is there any way to not be invisible, or lessen the effect, with the power active? If not, how much does it actually obscure your costume? Thanks