Power Pool "provoke" vs. Brute power "Taunt"

[normalperson]

 

Is "taunt" really a lot better than "provoke"?   Or just a little bit better?   Or about the same?

 

I'm wondering because the heal power you can get in that power pool set is pretty useful on a /reflexes or /shield build.    But I don't want to let down teammates by failing to draw enough aggro. 

[biostem]

8 minutes ago, normalperson said:

Is "taunt" really a lot better than "provoke"?   Or just a little bit better?   Or about the same?

 

I'm wondering because the heal power you can get in that power pool set is pretty useful on a /reflexes or /shield build.    But I don't want to let down teammates by failing to draw enough aggro. 

The biggest difference, which is a significant one, is the lack of a -range component in provoke;  Without that, enemies may be taunted to your character, but they won't close in on them...

EDIT:  This is especially important if you want to pull an enemy off of an ally or need enemies to be close to you to further empower some of your armor abilities.  Also, IIRC, taunt is auto-hit vs normal enemies, while provoke has a tohit check.

Edited January 15 by biostem

[normalperson]

 

Yeah.   That is a pretty big liability to protecting teammates, and gathering enemies for the blasters' AOE's. 

 

So maybe I should take the real Taunt, and trade the power pool Provoke for placate?             Maybe I can find some situation where placating will save me from dying. 

 

"Unrelenting" is just so useful!!!   My brute is Oversized weapons/ Super Reflexes, so it gives me a way to heal every now and again.   

 

 

Edit: follow up:    I decided to go ahead and take the real taunt power.    And am having no regrets!!!    I changed Provoke to pacify, because it's useful when there is a machine gun enemy standing away from the melee fight and debuffing my defense.           I figure my allies won't mind if one machine gunner mob takes his attention off of me. 

Edited Sunday at 11:30 PM by normalperson

[biostem]

On 1/16/2025 at 3:05 PM, normalperson said:

So maybe I should take the real Taunt, and trade the power pool Provoke for placate?

I certainly recommend taking taunt.  As for the other power pick, a lot depends upon the rest of your build, but I'm confident in saying placate isn't near the top of my suggestions...

[tidge]

Taunt is an auto-hit in PvE, Provoke is not. Typically I don't recommend Provoke for this reason.

 

I agree about the utility of Unrelenting. However, if the build is tight I suppose Provoke can sub in for Taunt.

[Onlyasandwich]

Taunt is definitely better than provoke for all the reasons outlined above.

 

However, if you're going in for Unrelenting or other powers that require a prereq pick in the pool, I would just use Provoke and save the power pick. It's adequate.

[Frozen Burn]

On 1/16/2025 at 3:05 PM, normalperson said:

 

Yeah.   That is a pretty big liability to protecting teammates, and gathering enemies for the blasters' AOE's. 

 

So maybe I should take the real Taunt, and trade the power pool Provoke for placate?             Maybe I can find some situation where placating will save me from dying. 

 

"Unrelenting" is just so useful!!!   My brute is Oversized weapons/ Super Reflexes, so it gives me a way to heal every now and again.   

 

 

Edit: follow up:    I decided to go ahead and take the real taunt power.    And am having no regrets!!!    I changed Provoke to pacify, because it's useful when there is a machine gun enemy standing away from the melee fight and debuffing my defense.           I figure my allies won't mind if one machine gunner mob takes his attention off of me. 

 

As stated above, not only does Taunt have a -range debuff, it also does not require an accuracy check whereas Provoke does.  Taunt is far superior.  Provoke is there for those who are not a Tank or Brute but yet want an AOE taunt.

 

As for your situation - take Provoke anyway along with Taunt instead of Placate.  It's far more useful to have 2 AOE "taunts" versus a placate power that you'll likely never ever use.  

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Onlyasandwich said:

Taunt is definitely better than provoke for all the reasons outlined above.

 

However, if you're going in for Unrelenting or other powers that require a prereq pick in the pool, I would just use Provoke and save the power pick. It's adequate.

 

I meant to add something else about choosing Provoke instead of Taunt (for the path towards Unrelenting), because of the non-autohit Provoke.

 

Taunt, because it is an auto-hit in PvE, can be used with minimal slotting and have no direct effect (AFAIK) on streakbreaker. Provoke, which requires a ToHit check, ought to be subject to all the standard rules around streakbreaker. Minimally, this implies (to me, YMMV) slotting Provoke for Accuracy. The same goes for other powers (ehem, Brawl, Kick, whatever) that players may be tempted to toss into an attack rotation.

 

Personal preference: on characters with a threat power, I try to 6-slot with the Mocking Beratement set, although I have a few characters with "threat" powers that have used as few as three and two pieces of that set.

 

EDIT: and another thing... regarding the potential choice of Provoke or Pacify when already planning to take Taunt...

 

For characters with a Placate (Stalkers, Banes) using Placate will, in most cases, stop an enemy from running away from you in a way that Taunt will not. I believe this is because Placate effectively causes the critter to 'refresh', while Taunt is just applying more aggro math on top of a critter that has already decided to run for the hills. I also think that I've observed Placate (on a Bane) to get enemies like Clamor to drop debuff toggles as well... can't be sure here, this fight is a little frenetic solo.

 

Because Pacify is not the same as Placate, I can't be certain that it would work the same w.r.t. getting enemies to stop running away... but if dipping into the Presence pool it might be a valuable tool for that purpose, even if only in solo play.

Edited Monday at 04:58 PM by tidge