Snarky

A gentle weeping, building to a veritable rainfall of tears, sobbing, turning, evolving into body shaking hysterical laughter.

In my opinion. Ahem, the long ago great Fury nerf of Brutes was a tragic mistake As I recall, there were accusations, spreadsheets, data, that Brutes could out damage Scrappers at full Fury. If I remember (and it is vague) some Brutes with specific attack sets and combos once in a while might do it. But the damage to the Scrapper ego had been done. There were spreadsheets after all And so, the great Fury nerf was decreed. Interestingly while the Devs nerf batted the crap out of Brutes they adjusted Fury decay to be pretty much inconsequential. There in lies the seeds of the tragedy as it has been ever since You see, it used to take a certain playstyle to be the Brute. You had to cannonball mobs, always dancing with as much damage as your AT could handle to slingshot that damage back at your enemies. With the Fury decay nominal you could play like you were sipping tea and contemplating large strategies before deciding whether to await your team, go to another floor, read a book, whatever. Your revved up damage meter was mot going down, nor up for that matter. This made Brutes much more boring As a last laugh. This made Scrappers less desirable than they were. Sure, Brutes do less damage than a Scrapper. But they really always did. Not by much, but generally less. After change, still generally less. Now with less mercurial swings and a more attractive playstyle to those who might have rolled a Scrapper. While being more survivable. Ka-ching Basically, In my opinion, the change made Brutes more boring for Brute players and more attractive for people wanting a melee damage dealer without being stuck on a particular AT. A tragedy all the way around. And the trees were all kept equal. With hatchet, axe, and saw.

That would be considered a buff *checks notes carefully nope, Brutes never get buffs. It’s in the core game rules

My old brain knew the meaning of masks but I was coming up blank. Thanks for the history lesson folks. Part of life where you have forgotten more than some people know I suppose. Tough being an old vampire. Well, no sense feeling sorry for myself. Time to kidnap some Paragon city civilians for experiments by Vahzilok.

Generally speaking pushing Willpowers health is of great importance, as well as Defense numbers. Softcap S/L, always pick sets that give extra HP, and then other defense numbers would be my priority list. Resists are less valuable in this configuration. Def>Res>Heal. Your Heal is a buttload of Regen backed up by Siphon Life and you need to lean into those Defense numbers as a front line fighter. So Resists are easily a third (or even fourth…global rech always helps) build priority

There is a penalty for studying a game too thoroughly. One of the reasons I have not obsessed on chess theory. It ruins the game. Not saying I am a Gary Kasparov, but he famously hated the game after he “learned it”. That can be true in City of X where knowing what is “best” precludes choices until you paint yourself into the same corners repeatedly Now take my main undead concept, which I have been evolving from Vampire to Lich in the backstory. I am starting to lean i to this either being a Invul/Dark Tank (yawn) or a Dark/Invul Sentinel (interesting) but have become open to it possibly being another “squishy” as well. After all an Incarnate Troller is “invulnerable” to low level mons and would fit the concept fine. Although something with a self rez (no enemies around either) would be very appropriate What do you folks do when writing up characters? Backstory first or game knowledge first?

I use the “taking pictures” a lot on respecs and when building a new toon so certain powers occupy the same button. Muscle memory is real. How (why?) you get by without MiDs baffles and disturbs me. Carry on and enjoy

Well I cannot remember hardly anything and I play. I get lost in a lot of missions. But the game is still fun. So even if you do not know or cannot remember I would say just charge ahead. Stick with the group and enjoy.

I enjoy crawling through every possible mission available. On almost any game. Old console games, mmorpg, anything. You get a lot of blech but there are gems out there.

Yeah, while things do not line up square at first glance there is a LOT of correlation some writing is just like that. Ever watch “Dead Like Me?” The writers just gloss o er the Reapers discussing their job in front of people at the Waffle House and various places half the time. Never explain it. Do people hear something else? Never find out. Writers just are not responsible for every plot hole. They write things and move on. Unless they are Tolkein. Two chapters on a random stream

I think this conversation is always prejudiced. Most likely not in the way whatever just came to your mind is in my view City of X has become multiple games. This is actually a good thing. The efforts of the current (and past, but a lot of credit to present) Dev staff have made the game very customizable with teams and leagues picking their level of difficulty So…. The conversation is prejudiced based on what level you are playing at. Because a modern ITF at max difficulty is way different than a Really Hard Way Magisterium badge run which is different than a PUG Synapse. The answer largely depends on the environment you play in. Yet I would hazrd a guess (dont I always) that most folks will present an answer without mentioning the environment they expect it to operate in

I have this game system on my bookshelf with lots of the supplements. It is very clunky due to the slowness of combat system. Accurate possibly but it bogs the play bad. Have run a few campaigns in it. My favorite GM likes a White Wolf type system where the dice are quick and the plot drives the action way more My favorite creation as a GM was inspired by the old Batman TV show and used the pre written villain group for Champions. The heroes were led to the villain lair which was disguised as a toy manufacturer called “Fun with Snakes”. Death traps galore

Is Bio Armor good for the concept now?

My main is Snarky, looking remarkably like my forum icon (as close as I can get) Snarky is undead. Bereft of hope, but having (what he believes) is a good sense of humor about it. Now I originally wrote him as a vampire, and have written his backstory that way. I am now trying to devise a backstory that is focused on him being a Lich. There are a number of reasons for that (many due to his unkillability) including a plot point in a short story I am working out (slowly) as I write it. In game I just love Brutes. A friend says I play like a cat looking for shiny objects. I would go so far as to say a cat on catnip not really looking for anything except stimulation. That is why I enjoy low level PUG TFs. Just a rollicking mess half the time. Character wise I gravitate to the concept due to the infinite questions about life and the unavoidability of death. The morality blends beautifully in CoX where Villains or Rogues are playable. After all, we are going out to kill (arrest? really?) people and confiscate (we steal off their dead bodies, cough) their stuff. Taking their life force to defeat them and make yourself stronger just dovetails so well with this. I gravitate to a Dark/Invul Brute. I have run him as a Dark/Dark as well. (arguably meaner and tougher, esp in modern late game) Snarky bumbles through the world looking for humor and the opportunity to share his wisdom about ....erm anything really. For that is life after all, interaction, conversation, transactions, until fate deals you that last card,

Now I get what you are saying. I never saw that as a "flaw" but a "Feature" lol. But if you are on extreme "Do not show the effect" xostume mode I can see where that would get you real quick. Once seen, always irritating. Thankfully for my undead it just seems menacingly appropriate. Is there an after market mod you can slap on? Peeps do that with sound I know, especially to cover sonic. Reminds me, I need a Sonic Blaster with AC/DC riffs....

I havent been in game in a while but i never realized Dark Embrace pulsed… perhaps i just like the look so accepted it. I run “faded” for months at a time as a blob of hate but lately have just been a Nossie with most of the stuff set minimal

City of Titans. Sigh. Grateful for the Homecoming Team since that project burned int hte drydock, half sank in the mud, and became a haven for the destitute and half mad. Hmmmm…. Theres a plotline in there somewhere….

Hmmmm. That is interesting. You are visible? I would check each power individually and see your options. The dark armor has quite a few built in effects on each power and if you did the global choice rather than individually that might be it

This never ending tromp to make the fights harder and Brutes weaker is one of the main reasons I am not logged on as much anymore. Mayne it is the reason other people are logged on more. But sure, dial up EBs to AV. Enjoy

Depends on the EB and the content level. When Longbow Ballistas start showing up you start looking around for inspirations, buffs, sm nucear weapons, etc. Even when you are 50 and tricked out they are no joke. Other EBs….depends on your AT, the terrain, etc

Ot depends on the AT I play. Brutes priority is no one or healers. Blaster I lock down a Paragon Protector with 2 holds and ST them fast. Do the same with Vicky robots on I trials Works like a charm

The first rule of HeroCorp is do not talk about HeroCorp.

Even if you do not use Emps to incarnate new alts (what kind of sick mind does not alt??) then the things are still more valuable (to me) to bust i to threads to buy Super Inspirations for Really Hard Way incarnate trials etc

Honestly not sure why you would want to. Being serious. The only reason i see to convert is to earn. So many better ways to earn I cannot count Then there is the unique value of Empyrean merits. You can fast kit out a new 50 to tier 4 Incarnate in everything with Emp merits. Or help you get there at least. No other in game currency provides this

Bumped to answer Dark Willpower request. The Dark Invul is stronger in every aspect of gameplay. In my opinion it is the overall toughest Brute out there, with the two powersets complementing each other perfectly. Dull Pain backed up by Siphon Life and a dozen other tight connections.