kenlon

The devs kept a lot of sub-par things around, so yeah, I'd say you do. Bruising provided a very small marginal benefit to damage against one target, provided you were using your very terrible T1 attack every 10 seconds to keep it up, without there being any sort of useful indication when the effect fell off of a target. It did nothing in AoE situations, which are and always have been the predominant style of combat, and even with bruising, Tank damage was utterly laughable. If they had wanted to go in on "tanks serve as damage buffs to their teammates", then having it be, say, an effect that was applied alongside taunt could be useful, or simply have it apply to all tanker attacks. Bruising was a bad band-aid fix that didn't actually solve the problem, and removing it and giving tankers decent damage and better AoE is pretty damn near perfect.

Those people need their heads examined. Bruising is an objectively bad mechanic.

Nope. There are many reasons why bruising is and has always been a garbage mechanic, but this is a major contributor. "These modifers apply to almost everything in combat: Debuff strength, Mez duration, Knockback magnitude, and Damage are all affected." https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Purple_Patch

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