Snarky

There is a Dark/Invul Scrap in my future. Hard ST damage specialist I hope.

an AV will most times step out of a ton of immob/holds/and various other mezzes. basically, if you are counting on something like 1 ST immob power you better be hunting sappers

I was leaning to Brute. (and My Dark/Dark Brute has 1450 badges...) Then i played them both. I do still love the ST damage on the Brute. But... Everything else is better on the Tank. Shadow Maul works. (and is much weaker on a Brute) Touch of Fear is better. Soul Drain! Dark Consumption, Dark Regeneration, The damage Aura, Fear Aura, Stun Aura, better resist values, higher health, better ATOs. So... just rounded a 1000 badges on the Tank lol. Should finish Ouro badging today, then about half goldside to Flashback, and 2/3? of story arc achievement through Ouro. Sigh. Grind monkey grind!

add knockback

I had the same issue when I tried a Fire Fire Blaster many years past. What has changed? I now know the mobs really well. I know which ones I can Nuke, and which ones will turn around and hit me with brass knuckles spelling N0L0V3 If you do not have the terrain and the mobs memorized it is a lot harder to pull Blaster magic.

So, I have been running a LOT of Blaster the last year. And each one I build has LESS defense. I never take tough or weave. I do take manuevers, and slap the two 3% Def I/Os in the epic armor. That is it. I used to build for ranged defense. With a Dark Blaster you can throw a Mag 4 stun on a group as you go on to nuke. But mag 2 is fine. Now let me BLOW YOUR MIND. I run a Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster with NO damage mitigation except maneuvers and the two +3% Def I/Os. He is impatient, and LOVES to get to a fresh spawn first. He loves to aim, build up, swoop and Nuke. If there is another spawn near he will incarnate nuke them (fire, ranged) and if there is a third spawn nearby he will throw 2 fire rains on them. Doesnt he get attacked? Funnily enough, when you light people on fire, even if they survive they are often distracted. Even video game people. Oh, since I did not build for defense…. I built for DAMAGE. And Alpha is max DAMAGE, and interface is +Fire DAMAGE. Do you smell that? It is the smell of victory. Smells a lot like burning Freakshow Tank i know. His tactics (?!?) never change. I will eat a medium purple before facing off against a Vicky robot heavy spawn in incarnate trials. And Barrier is a great Destiny for this playstyle as well. Ever hear of Jackie Chan. Frustrated him to work with Hollywood. He knew tricks like using wooden crates to, at the last second, stop himself from being crushed between a car and a dumpster. Gave himself just enough time to jump out of the way. But the camera did not catch it. That is how you play a Blaster. You know what the outcome is before you ever jump into a spawn. If you are in doubt, probably need another wooden crate…

I started on Brutes. I love redside. It was a different era. Time changes all things. Even old vampires. I asked yesterday, both here and in the Brute forum, which is better for Dark Melee. A Tank, or a Brute. Truthfully I still think Brute edges it out. I am not going to run a hundred experiments and record all the data. Brutes do better at ST than Tanks and Dark Melee has always been an ST focused set. But nothing exists in a vacuum. I run Dark Dark. Now, for those who do not read all my ramblings let me get to the points. I always take all Dark auras. The bottom line is the Fear and Stun auras create a “faux defense” that makes up for Dark’s lack of defense mitigation in nearly all situations. Without needing defense debuff resistance. So, three auras with 50% greater radius…. A damage, a fear, a stun. Plus the greater effectiveness of Dark Melee AoE. So, now that you know the auras are definitely better, the Dark Melee is better aoe if still not as good at ST, as on a Brute, and… better health and resistance values on a Tank. Even a stubborn old vampire knows when to just take the win and fade away. Sigh, time to badge. At least I have Really Hard Way on that Tank from the back shelf lol. Nearly impossible to get these days.

And never spell check! Great things happen. It is how languages evolve

No, I think you got the picture right. I took a look at Sentinels because it had more of what I wanted. Then I started looking at the armor I wanted. Was on a Brute for a day. Now on a Dark Dark Tank lol. Box time. Oh yeah!

Cranberry juice and Ripple... Cripple.

Always post, always! Life life like there is no tomorrow. (There might not be one!) was just teasing btw

a careful (or drunken) read of the original post will give hints as to the point of the glowies. That it brings ambush and the AV back. But. You may not read that. Or this. And will forever more be mystified.

you hyphenated "end-game" but not "late game" is there a reason? since we are being precise....

When the game turns 21 you can have Tequila again.

Did I click that? Oops...

I played it as Invul/KM Tank. No Tank is bad. The whole concept was Tank Mage, I made a magic themed/costumed and the big movements look like spell casting. Then a lot of the stuff is ranged. Short range but still. Again, no Tank is bad. Yawn…uh, what was I saying?

This really gets “to it” last year I leveled a LOT of toons to low 40s-50. My standard was 4DFBs, then all the TF/SF/Trials in order (ranked by last level of the content). This included a dark dark and ice ice controller. These things were able to make any team safe and control the battle like the top banana at the circus. But, … never “felt” powerful. On fast teams they were useless. (But so are my Brutes/Blasters unless i am also racing to objectives.) But Controllers just hang with the team, sadly usually the less effective members, because that is where the most controlling is done. Rarely do i agree with the Archetype write ups. But the Controller one is pretty spot on

Same thing happened to my old Tarterus. So, because it is me….first i ignored it. That worked for…a time. Then i peeled the damn thing off and superglued it back in place. This was not pretty, not fun, and not precise. After weeks of random smear still drooling and dried superglue particles migrating the thing settled into a cohesive slab. good luck 🤪

Dark Melee. I have my opinion but i want to hear what you guys think. Better on a Tank or a Brute?

Dark Melee. I have my opinion but i want to hear what you guys think. Better on a Tank or a Brute?

yesterday Luna badges in Ouro for anniversary were available today they are not is this like get your badges in 12 hours once a year thing now? If so, while planning who was getting the investment I missed out... solved, the option disappears when you have them all.

Well, it is that they do not know it. I may have mentioned that quite often someone does not know how to be successful on a posi 1. Maybe not, I am an old creature and I forget. But it is true. Some people, and let us be kind and not call them stupid. Because they are probably just well meaning, yet ignorant. They screw up a relatively simple instruction in the last mission of Posi 1. They do not know it. They struggle to take in information. Sutter is rarely ran. By the time you go in to fight the AV in the 1st mission the team is usually split and whoever is in there with you likely does not know the fight. Leads to interesting times…

do we play in the same universe? half the time i do this that room is downtown fugly

I am a sucker for "perfect" The Mandos used a lot of energy weapons. Vader even pointedly told one "No Disintegrations".... I am thinking Beam....

Yeah, I think I built a Mandalorian. Flight and a TON of accuracy.