kenlon

The idea that a ranged DPS AT should always outdamage a melee DPS AT in melee range is silly. I mean, how would you like it if Scrappers could suddenly out-DPS blasters at range?

Yes, that's why I'm asking the question. Captain said that there's going to be a couple more rounds of patches before it goes live, and that it's dependent on people other than him. So I'm asking, "Hey, got any idea what timeline we're looking at?"

@Captain Powerhouse: Is there any sort of rough ETA for when the patch that will contain the tank changes will be ready for live? I've found myself playing less CoH because I have a whole stack of tanker ideas that I don't want to start building until we have the new hotness. 😄

Nah, that's not a problem. Because the people who are claiming to be at damage cap all the time aren't.

Meanwhile, over here in the game that people are actually playing rather than Jack Emmert's ancient fever dreams, LTs and Bosses of the same level as the player are easy meat once you're past 22 and have SO level enhancements in. The pathetic nature of TOs/DOs affects a lot more than just accuracy. Damage, endurance, recharge time, all of these things add up to make pre-SO levels an utter slog for no good reason.

There is no good reason for lower level players to be so much weaker versus even level enemies than higher level players are. At higher levels, you have more powers and more enhancement slots, why double-punish lower level characters by saddling them with enhancements that don't enhance worth a damn? At this point, I either DFB or AE farm characters to 22 because trying to play the low level arcs is just too damn painful with how terrible our characters are at that level. And that sucks.

Personally, I hope that whatever changes they make to Energy Melee (and it does need it, badly), the set stays focused on single target damage. Having EM be the premier ST damage set would be both cool and thematically appropriate.

Stone Armor is one of those I1 sets that needs to be rethought from the ground up - unlike some other sets that are that old, the introduction of IOs did not help it much, and it's just terribly designed overall.

There's a simple fix for this - remove TOs and DOs entirely and have SOs drop/be sold instead, at the same prices. People will freak out about it, like they did the last time I suggested it, but it's still a better bet for making the low levels fun.

I have a Bots/FF build (unfinished, because waaaaay too many other alts) that skips the pulse rifle attacks and the useless later powers in FF to take a whole pile of power pool attacks. It's pretty hilarious, even in it's current, underleveled state.

. . . Super Reflexes gets good insanely early on tankers. It is not hard to be just about to the def softcap on SOs alone, at 22. You have to give up most of your offense to get there, slot and power-wise, but if you don't insist on maxing it you can still do quite well. (I can't confirm it just at this moment as I am not at a machine that has Mids, but I'll doublecheck it when I am no longer at work.) SR is astonishingly powerful as a tanker primary, and I have to wonder how you built it that you found it not to be. In fact, if SR had been put on tankers on live in it's current form, I can guarantee it would have been nerfed.

Not really fair to characterize the Rage stacking stuff as "tanker changes", they are quite independent.

I suspect this is due to some of the posting in the last feedback thread comparing scrapper/blaster damage with brutes, not because of anything directly related to tankers. It just happened to be brought to light by these changes. @Captain Powerhouse, can you confirm/deny?

SR is balls-out insane on tankers. It is the best goddamn thing.

You know you can view the stats of any power at any level you want in the game already, right? Go into the enhancements screen, bring up the Show Detailed Info on a power, and play with the slider.

Captain Powerhouse mentioned that Judgements will be excluded from the range increase in the next iteration of the tanker testing, so this is a known thing.

What's the proper way to use pet IO sets? Are the MM ATO sets worth using?

The reason that doesn't work is that once you're tough enough to stay alive through anything, then it doesn't matter how much tougher you get. And just about any tanker primary can be utterly invincible to God himself once slotted with IOs. (And since the inevitable comparisons between brutes and tankers come in when the brutes are IOed, this is relevant here.) Also SR is utterly amazeballs/holy-shit-this-would-be-nerfed-on-live on tankers. Seriously, plan out a build in Mid's and your eyes will fall out of your goddamn head.

Pretty sure the Homecoming devs, like the live devs, are not balancing around IOs. Your argument against giving tankers a higher damage cap is invalid.

This build is dirt cheap, relatively. My EM/Inv no-fighting-pool softcap build is loaded down with Winter enhancements to get what it needs. Now that's expensive. You could quite easily go with cheaper sets in your attacks, as long as you slot the LotG and Reactive sets in your defenses, and be super-safe as you level. (And, since you can just buy attuned enhancements right off the AH for the same price as non-attuned ones, you can be at the def cap from very early on, level-wise.)

Forget these patch notes, give us those already! 😄

After reading through the Flavor of the Month thread, over in General Discussion (https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/9495-flavour-of-the-month-level-50/), I was inspired to make characters using the least popular powersets for each AT. For Tanker, that turned out to be Super Reflexes/Claws, but I already have a Claws brute, so I made a SR/Katana instead. And dear sweet Jesus, SR is obscenely good for tankers. Dead easy to slot, requires so little slot investment that you have plenty to use on your attacks, and even with some intentionally less optimal power picks (for concept reasons), he is going to be a BEAST. Just about hits the incarnate defense cap in all categories, and has significant resists to boot, as well as excellent HP regen to keep him up through chip damage. Just standing there, no procs going, no scaling damage resists from low HP, he has the following: 59.6% Melee Def 53.4 Ranged Def 54.9% AoE Def 47.5% S/L Res 29% F/C Res 14% E/N Res 23.8% Toxic/Psi Res 332% regen, 114.3% max HP. Why on God's green and fuzzy earth is SR not more popular? Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.3 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! The Watcher's Eye: Level 50 Magic Tanker Primary Power Set: Super Reflexes Secondary Power Set: Katana Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Concealment Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Focused Fighting (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense (3) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (3) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime (23) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage (23) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) Level 1: Sting of the Wasp (A) Hecatomb - Damage (45) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge (46) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (46) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Recharge (46) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance Level 2: Focused Senses (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense (5) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (5) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 4: Agile (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (7) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (7) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 6: Practiced Brawler (A) Recharge Reduction IO Level 8: Dodge (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (9) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (9) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 10: Flashing Steel (A) Obliteration - Damage (40) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge (42) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge (43) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (43) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 12: Evasion (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense (13) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (13) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 14: Dragon's Roar (A) Mocking Beratement - Taunt (33) Mocking Beratement - Taunt/Recharge (34) Mocking Beratement - Taunt/Recharge/Range (34) Mocking Beratement - Accuracy/Recharge (34) Mocking Beratement - Taunt/Range (37) Mocking Beratement - Recharge Level 16: Gambler's Cut (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage (25) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance (27) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge (27) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (31) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (48) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 18: Lucky (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 20: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (21) Recharge Reduction IO (43) Recharge Reduction IO Level 22: Build Up (A) Recharge Reduction IO (25) Recharge Reduction IO Level 24: Super Speed (A) Run Speed IO Level 26: Quickness (A) Run Speed IO Level 28: The Lotus Drops (A) Armageddon - Damage (29) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge (29) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (31) Armageddon - Accuracy/Recharge (31) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance (33) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage Level 30: Kick (A) Accuracy IO Level 32: Tough (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (33) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% Level 35: Soaring Dragon (A) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage (36) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Damage/RechargeTime (36) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (36) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (37) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (37) Superior Gauntleted Fist - RechargeTime/+Absorb Level 38: Golden Dragonfly (A) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage (39) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Recharge (39) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (39) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (40) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (40) Superior Might of the Tanker - Recharge/Chance for +Res(All) Level 41: Stealth (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 44: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 47: Focused Accuracy (A) HamiO:Cytoskeleton Exposure (48) HamiO:Cytoskeleton Exposure (48) HamiO:Cytoskeleton Exposure Level 49: Physical Perfection (A) Healing IO (50) Healing IO (50) Endurance Modification IO (50) Endurance Modification IO Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Prestige Power Dash

I knew you were hunting recharge, but I figure the core of a Tanker is to be able to take hits, and thus any build is going to have to balance hitting the defensive targets needed with taking procs to increase damage. If you decide that you need those recharge bonuses, it just takes you from 42 open enhancement slots down to 37, and you still are better set for tanking than you were before.

This is most intriguing, and has me considering revising my expensive planned Inv/EM build using your layout for the armor powers. (It's moderately ludicrous, and has way to many winter enhancements in it, so it's about 900M-1B, even with prices where they are now.) A couple things, though - one, you saved the build with Invincibility set to 10 enemies, which made me think you'd somehow managed to softcap def with only armor powers and sets, which nearly made my head explode, and two, you can put a pair of Cytoskeleton Exposures in Tactics to get the same end cost and slightly more to-hit without needed to use level boosters on the IOs. MORE EXTENSIVE EDIT: On another look, there's some weird choices in this build. The one that stuck out at me was Maneuvers. You've six slotted it, putting in five of Red Fortune, but all that gets you over putting in a three slot LotG is .09% defense (and, admittedly, .09 less end/s, but end really shouldn't be a problem for most secondaries, once slotted.) Taking those three slots and moving them to Tough Hide and Combat Jumping lets you get two more LotG three-sets. That's 20% regen, 3.4% more HP, and 1.28% defense - and that's with changing the +5 LotG Defense from Tough Hide into a +0, so you can use attuned IOs instead. There's also the aforementioned Tactics slotting thing, and I don't quite know why you put a fourth piece of Aegis in Temp Invuln. There should be plenty of incidental S/L resist floating around in any tanker build that would free up that slot - just putting in the two ATO sets will push you up over 90%, in fact. The only other change you might want to consider, if you're not wedded to getting the Preventative Medicine resist and recharge bonuses, is pulling two slots out of that and frankenslotting it with the Heal/Recharge from all the 50 healing sets (Panacea, Numina, Doctored Wounds and Preventative). This actually gives you a slightly faster recharge and nearly identical heal values, while saving you two more slots. So, here's my proposal for a revised Inv tanker shell- it gets you a bit more defense across the board, still gets you to S/L softcap with nothing but the Tanker ATOs, has higher regen and barely higher HP total, and has a little extra to-hit to boot. And you go from 39 free enhancement slots to 42. The only things you lose are 13.75% recharge (from losing the Preventative Medicine and Red Fortune sets, slightly higher end-drain (from .98 to 1.1/s), +2% damage and 3.8% global EndRdx. Personally, I've always had more trouble getting all the enhancement slots I want for attack powers on my Inv tankers, so every free enhancement slot is golden. Even if it's not being used for your proc monster build, I suspect this sort of template could be very handy for a lot of people, so thanks for putting it out there. Hasted Invuln Template:

This, followed by multiple paragraphs of complaining out how the sound must remain how you want it, or everything is RUINED FOREVER. The irony, she is palpable.