Damage Aura Imbalance for Melee

[JayboH]

From my admittedly limited understanding, Scrapper crits are very rare from damage auras, and Brutes benefit their whole career from boosted damage auras via Fury.  Tankers get larger damage auras even though they just get the flat damage ticks compared to the other two classes.

 

Do you think there is an imbalance to address?

[ZorkNemesis]

Because Scrapper crits are baked into the powers, most auras won't trigger them.  The only one I'm aware that does is Quills from Spines and that's part of the offensive set anyway so it gets a pass.

 

I don't think there's any sort of imbalance to address as they all do what they do just fine.  Many auras also serve to apply secondary effects; while Fire might not, Electric will drain endurance, dark and ice are supplemented by additional auras that fear/stun or slow targets, bio chews up resistances, stuff like that.  The damage is very minor on the auras, even slotting it to max damage a Brute's aura won't do enough damage that it makes that significant a difference compared to the others (plus their normal Fury-charged AoEs should be clear-cutting foes anyway, the aura is more for taunting and secondary effects).  Tankers having larger auras also plays into how they're meant to be the ones drawing fire and the larger aura means more things being taunted with Gauntlet effects.  My only real problem with Scrapper auras is simply that most do not have a taunt aura attached like Tanker and Brute auras, causing foes to run away from the Scrapper if they live long enough, but at the same time Scrappers can mow down enemies so quickly that this really only becomes a problem if the Scrapper can't kill quick enough (which shouldn't be an issue unless the boss mobs resist your primary damage).  There are ways to deal with that though, i'm personally a fan of putting knockdown procs into my AoEs (Avalanche and Overwhelming Force) so that when I sweep groups they all fall over and can't get away.

[JayboH]

I find brute auras noticeably better due to fury while leveling one compared to scrappers personally.

[JJDrakken]

Put your Scrapper AT Sets into your Aura..

[JayboH]

Procs in damage auras have been recommended against, no?

[JJDrakken]

5 minutes ago, JayboH said:

Procs in damage auras have been recommended against, no?

 

That Chance for higher procs or increase crit dmg proc, always works for me in an Aura, usually put increase critical hit bonus.

[JayboH]

Hmm...  that doesn't really address the topic but I suppose if a player doesn't want direct control of that proc it's fine

[Oysterhead]

1 hour ago, JJDrakken said:

 

That Chance for higher procs or increase crit dmg proc, always works for me in an Aura, usually put increase critical hit bonus.

Do you mean the perma flat bonus to crit chance (Scrapper's Strike), or the +50% chance to crit one (Critical Strikes)? Scrapper's Strike flat bonus is a global effect, not a proc, so it'll work all the time regardless of what power it is in, so a damage aura works out fine. I personally wouldn't put the +50% chance in a damage aura, as I like to have control over when it goes off (put it in a weaker attack that is right before a strong attack in your normal chain, typically).

Damage Aura's are a good place for Tanker ATO's as well, either one honestly. Either it'll ensure you get a steady absorb, or steadily get the +res bonus. I usually do the absorb in a damage aura if it exists, and resist in my T1 attack.

[JJDrakken]

7 minutes ago, Oysterhead said:

Do you mean the perma flat bonus to crit chance (Scrapper's Strike), or the +50% chance to crit one (Critical Strikes)? Scrapper's Strike flat bonus is a global effect, not a proc, so it'll work all the time regardless of what power it is in, so a damage aura works out fine. I personally wouldn't put the +50% chance in a damage aura, as I like to have control over when it goes off (put it in a weaker attack that is right before a strong attack in your normal chain, typically).

Damage Aura's are a good place for Tanker ATO's as well, either one honestly. Either it'll ensure you get a steady absorb, or steadily get the +res bonus. I usually do the absorb in a damage aura if it exists, and resist in my T1 attack.

 

2nd, I don't mind when it goes off honestly. Do to recipe building for builds, a lot times, all useful PBAOE Recipes are used up. I only use most time, the purple or winter(control). But by putting one your AT sets in that, leaves more other attacks opened up for other recipes sets. Be it in Single or AoE. Though the Winter PBAOE set in Dmg Aura is also nice, with KD proc in it.  I use that in my Hot Feet on a Controller.

[ZorkNemesis]

7 hours ago, JJDrakken said:

Put your Scrapper AT Sets into your Aura..

 

Meh, i'm more of a fan of putting the Gladiator's Fury proc in any damage aura when I can.  When it goes off it makes everything in close proximity much easier to kill.  Though if I have other powers that harbor GF better (Soul Drain being one of my favorite chocies) then yeah i'll throw ATO procs in there if I can spare slots.

[Gulbasaur]

10 hours ago, Oysterhead said:

Damage Aura's are a good place for Tanker ATO's as well, either one honestly. Either it'll ensure you get a steady absorb, or steadily get the +res bonus. I usually do the absorb in a damage aura if it exists, and resist in my T1 attack.

Procs that affect you are great in auras - if it goes off once, it goes off once... and that's enough for you to get the bonus. Procs that affect enemies less so - if it goes off once, it only goes off once and that's a bit rubbish. 

 

The Gaussian's proc in Tactics is great if you team because it rolls a dice separately for each player and pet affected and if one of those is a success, you get the Build Up effect. On a full team with a couple of pets, it can be equivalent to having Build Up active 25% of the time on average. 

[InvaderStych]

On 5/31/2021 at 11:31 PM, JayboH said:

Do you think there is an imbalance to address?

 

Yes, but not with regards to auras.  And with the caveat that it's not really *that* much of an imbalance.

 

It's not that aura's don't crit.  It's that Scrapper Secondary Powers don't Crit.  Please correct me if my info is out of date, but nothing in any Scrapper armor set; auras, Shield Charge, Ground Zero, etc will ever generate a critical hit by design.

 

On 5/31/2021 at 11:46 PM, ZorkNemesis said:

Because Scrapper crits are baked into the powers, most auras won't trigger them.  The only one I'm aware that does is Quills from Spines and that's part of the offensive set anyway so it gets a pass.

 

Quills crits just fine, despite being an aura, because it is from a primary attack set.  Crits were baked into primary powers and eschewed by design in secondaries, iirc.

 

Now, as to the question of balance:

 

Brute's Fury will boost the damage of all damaging powers in a secondary armor.  Auras, SC, GZ, Burn, and so forth.

 

Tanker's AoE Radius and Target Cap buffs affect all of those same powers from their Primary armor set.

 

So the question is:  Should the Scrapper (and Stalker, by extension) versions of those powers have the Critical Hit mechanic written into them?

[JayboH]

Well yeah, but even if they were, it seems like they would be on the low end of the list for benefits IMO.

[JayboH]

Do you think the missing crits are an oversight?

[Bill Z Bubba]

22 minutes ago, JayboH said:

Do you think the missing crits are an oversight?

 

On one hand, no, because attacks from scrapper armors have never critted that I can recall and thus it was working as designed rather than an oversight.

 

On the other hand, why should pool attacks crit if damage auras can't?

[JayboH]

42 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

On one hand, no, because attacks from scrapper armors have never critted that I can recall and thus it was working as designed rather than an oversight.

 

On the other hand, why should pool attacks crit if damage auras can't?

Yeah, weird right?

 

So tankers get bigger AOEs to hit more enemies, brutes get increased damage ticks, and scrappers have the worst damage output when it comes to damage auras amongst the main melee ATs...  just doesn't seem right

[Bill Z Bubba]

1 minute ago, JayboH said:

Yeah, weird right?

 

So tankers get bigger AOEs to hit more enemies, brutes get increased damage ticks, and scrappers have the worst damage output when it comes to damage auras amongst the main melee ATs...  just doesn't seem right

 

But scrappers kick the shit out of both tanks and brutes on single target damage. By a WIDE margin. (Unlike the not nearly as wide margin of brutes vs tanks.)

[JayboH]

1 minute ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

But scrappers kick the shit out of both tanks and brutes on single target damage. By a WIDE margin. (Unlike the not nearly as wide margin of brutes vs tanks.)

They should, they have far less survivability. 

 

...if they didn't, it would be a severe game imbalance.