Augury

The spec ops are annoying, yeah-huh! Also if you're a stoner then post 20 will be annoying too as the SWAT all start tossing out sticky glue bombs at you and rooted + that = gimped movement even with swiftness 3 slotted with SOs.

Also missing KO-blow against a freaking van gets my goat.

Other than that it's all gold.

You didn't take Dimension Shift. Bad idea, if you ask me. Now I know DS gets a bad rep, but this is mainly due to CoH controllers. Controllers get a secondary set that can, with the right set, plug up a lot of control holes. Grav is already one of the least controlly sets there is as far as "run of the mill" control goes. No sleeps, no confuse, the only straight up powers (thus not counting wormhole) are hold and immob.

I'm not a fan of immob, and question its usefulness compared to other types that actually do more than fix a mob in its place.

My suggestion is take Dimension Shift and love it. Unlike Gravity Distortion Field you can use this regularly since it isn't affected by the AoE control nerf. You don't even have to slot it particularly heavily; even when I just had one recharge in it and nothing else I loved it.

The thing with DS is that people hate it for some reason, but DS not slotted for acc is a very powerful weapon. You can toss it onto bosses, EB and AVs and they'll just about never get hit. On the other hand DS is quite good at hitting minnies and more than once have I used it to take a large chunk of guards around a boss/EB out of the fight using powerboost while everyone wailed on the boss/EB til it died, then mopped up the rest when they came out of shift.

Even without that it's a good panic button if you see health bars start dropping, giving people a breather. It can also be used on scary spawns like those 10+ longbow with a nullifier and ballista, by taking half of them out of the fight at the start to deal with the scary mobs without your brute faceplanting cause the alpha hit him at the same time as the nullifier killing his powers for a few seconds.

It's not so useful against smallish spawns (like 3-5) but then how much control are you gonna need for that?

Your choice ultimately wether or not to take Dimenshion Shift, but from where I'm sitting it's my Grav's favourite and most used and liked AoE control, and any grav dom should take it, learn to use it, and love it. ... And then make their teams love it too (which anyone who's frequently teamed with my grav/enr dom does).

Lasts longer than GDF too.

Your choice though. I just can't stress enough how important I feel this power is to grav dominators, while it may not be at all to grav controllers. DS has a bad rep, and it's undeserved.

Of course I don't know if it's more useful than crushing field in PVP. I'd wager it is, because freezing anyone who isn't 100% melee in place is less useful than making them unable to take action at all. And imagine a group of 5 heroes coming your way, you PB, DS, and only one is left unshifted. Kill that one, wait for the others to come out of DS, throw on GDF, mop rest up.

But that's just a guess. You'll miss it for PVE though. >_>

So I FINALLY thought up a reason why taking a ranged single attack from the PPPs might be worth it!

That is, if those attacks inherently taunt a single target, like our set attacks do. (do powerpool attacks inherent taunt? I'm taking one, so wanna know that too)

That is... so I can inherent taunt a mob at range when taunt isn't recharged, or they're straying, and somehow got out of my mud pots when I'm in granite and rooted, or just granite and slowed. Just hoping it actually works to keep them focussed on me.

So, anyone know if this works or not?

On an unrelated note, does anyone know if the PPP pets are worth it if you only stick 3 recharge in them and call it a day?

If rage does that, then it's an AWESOME coinkidink.

Pic Behind Link

Funny thing is she isn't even a fire brute, but SS/Stone. Hur.

Question from me now because I'm just wondering.

Enhanced Stamina adds +1 end per second, and takes 3 power slots to get it. Is this really needed on a /kin with Transference? If it transfers 60 end per use, and it recharges every 15 seconds, doesn't that add up to +4 end per second, while only taking 1 power instead of 3, and being 4 times as effective?

Just gonna pipe up cause I'm the granite brute.

Basically she's going to be Super Strength/Stone Armor. Built to be the ultimate Brute tank in granite. Permarage/hasten/rech redux should fix my problems with -dam and -rech from granite for the most part. Also taking Aid Self, Tough and Weave for maximum defense/resists.

Hmm. Not sure what to add really. o_o But might help to know my rough build, for people making comments.

To be fair your MMs wouldn't have had their second PPP hold yet, right?

These numbers are from SherkSilver's CoH / CoV Character Builder, which already has thugs and some numbers on PPPs updated.

Even if the numbers are wrong and it lasts as long as GD I'll still be glum over the fact my main may have been way better as a /dark corruptor or mastermind. But I suppose I only have my obsession with the grav powerset to blame for that.

Well I did some math and wet-finger-comparison:


Gravity Distortion [Acc/Acc/Hold/Hold/Rech/Rech]:
- Cost 8.53
- Recharge 3.29
- Duration 25.94
- Act 1.8
(93% accuracy)

Petrifying Gaze [Acc/Acc/Hold/Hold/Rech/Rech]:
- Cost 7.80 (slightly less than GD)
- Recharge 6.59 (+100% recharge)
- Duration 34.59 (+40% duration)
- Act 1.67
(20% less accurate -- 73%)

Bitter Freeze Ray [Acc/Hold/Hold/Hold/Rech/Rech]:
- Cost 15.18 (way more than GD)
- Recharge 8.23 (+150% recharge)
- Duration 15.72 (-40% duration)
- Act 3.7
(53% less accurate -- 40%)

Soul Storm [Acc/Acc/Hold/Hold/Rech/Rech]:
- Cost 10 (slightly more than GD)
- Recharge 4.94 (+50% recharge)
- Duration 17.29 (-20% duration)
- Act 2.1
(0% less accurate -- 93%)


mag 6 holds every 7.47s (cycles), mag 2 hold every 2.49s, 0.80 mag per second (w/FreezeRay)
mag 2 hold every 4.94s, mag 2 hold every 6.59s, 0.40+0.30=0.70 mag per second (wo/FreezeRay)
mag 2 hold every 3.29s, 0.60 mag per second (using GD)

23 second average hold duration (w/FreezeRay)
26 second average hold duration (wo/FreezeRay)
25 second average hold duration (using GD)


Of course, the GD figure semi-doubles with singularity, if you can get it in place, but I believe grav with sing is the only Dominator that can stack two holds, correct me if I'm wrong.

A /dark corruptor with a PPP hold can come out ahead of a dominator, if I did my math right. It's not by much, but they can! Bitter Freeze Ray in fact mucks things up more than it really helps, because it's innacurate, end heavy, and short duration.

And because I'm bored I'll go look at comparable control powers.

- Black Hole is nearly as good as Dimension Shift
- Dark Servant is a pet as is Singularity. Dark Servant Heals, Singularity does not. Both cast their respective holds. Sing casts crush and lift, Dark Servant debuffs. Seems almost even, roughly.
- /grav has the AoE hold, but it's been nerfed, and I wonder if /dark's Fearsome Stare might not be more useful than Gravity Distortion Field due to simple availability.
- Wormhole teleports and disorients. Howling Twilight deals damage, disorients, slows, -recharges the foes and resurrects any fallen team members, but recharges twice as slowly.
- Crushing Field - if you're that attached to it (I loathe this power) - can potentially be at least partially replaced by taking Web Envelope from Black Scorpion's PPP.
- The rest is soft control versus debuffs.


I dunno. Right now I'm thinking grav/ just sucks. ;_;

Not that I'm trying to convince people to stop playing (grav) doms and all roll corruptors cause they're better, but at this point I just feel pretty down about my character. Why bother when a /dark corruptor can do exactly what she does, while putting out better damage with a better attack chain and scourge? Of course there's domination, but I can't recall the last time I hit it, damn dom-unfriendly teams.

I knew grav/ wasn't the best choice for control, but I'd expected to match up better in this comparison. I also realize the /dark would bloom late compared to the grav/, but I tend to play with level 50 in mind since that's where we all inevitably get stuck, and that's when I believe you get the best picture of the relative powerlevels.

I'm just wondering, again, since I can't find any figures on magnitudes of various holds, am I correct in my assumption that dominators are kind of getting a raw deal when it comes to single target holding?

First off, we only have a mag 2 hold where controllers have 3. I know that much. Now, I'm pretty sure things like Petrifying Gaze are mag 2 also, since mag 1 makes them useless, and the PPPs with their vaunted supersized portion of extra power give single holds too, assuming also mag 2.

Now my grav/enr has one single target hold. And a singularity. To stack two holds I need to maneuver my sing so it hits the target I want, which isn't always possible, and hope it doesn't mess up its chain - which thankfully rarely happens - then stack my hold on top. This is, since I can't find figures, I'm assuming a mag 4 hold.

Now, I don't know about all the other powersets, but I know /dark corruptors and masterminds actually get quite a control bang for their buck. They can doublestack two holds, PPP and one from their secondary, without maneuvering or tricks which have the great potential for failure, to doublestack to a mag 4 hold.

I don't know, unless you get domination up as a dom, this seems kinda like a raw deal. I don't get added scourge damage, or 6 pets to guard my heiney, and Statesman made sure that AoE control is only bursts and non maintainable. Even with Dimension Shift to compliment the nerfed AoE hold I'm relying mostly on single target holds; just like dear States wanted.

Personally, I'm hoping I'm wrong on my numbers. I have enough of a lack of motivation to play my Auggy as it is.

I tried about making a thugs blastermind. Personally I gave up when I realized she'd only have 3 attacks, one of which a cone.

Kudos to those of you sticking with it. You're braver than I am.

Augury just doesn't care how the job gets done, as long as it gets done. When you're flinging extremely heavy objects at people and filling the air with shrapnel, crushing people with the force of gravity, and zap them with energy inevitably someone's gonna die.

But if they're just knocked out she's happy too. Hell if gameplay supported it she'd usually just prefer to intimidate people to step aside, easiest that way.

I guess that's what she is. Ruthless uncaring efficiency. Mind you she wasn't always that ruthless, but past events changed her, made her bitter and uncaring.

[ QUOTE ]
Defenders, Controllers and Tanks all have 400% cap.

[/ QUOTE ]
One of these days I'll label you the City of Numbers Encyclopedia.

Thanks!

Quick semi-related question. What is the damage cap for defenders? I'm kinda fearing it'll be annoyingly low so slotting damage enhances on top of FS will be useless.

EDIT: And Speed Boost is the best thing since sliced bread. It required restating.

EDIT: Ah well, fixed it by sacrificing stuff simply for my sanity. I feel better now.

[ QUOTE ]
i look at this and think poor fury builder on teams. Until you get mudpots the corrupters, dominators and other brutes will steal aggro, with granite 3 slotted defense you have easily enough defense to pull off aid self. It really aint that bad. Use it first when you are 1/3rd to a half from full health and failing that then use earths embrace as an emergency back up. Come in and out of granite between groups or asap to raise recharge times and id definately take tp foe and tp self to boot about with and have no mezz protection lost. For me itll be hurdle out, ss out, fight pool out, any 3rd end slot out, all attacks 66% accuracy, 2 recharge 1 endurance 1 dam per attack, rage 3 recharge, hurl (beautiful damage, range and -fly in) and just get out there and kill or be killed!

[/ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately I can't take the fighting pool out; this is completely contrary to why I'm building this brute. Which is to say maximum survivability. Not taking rather decent powerpool powers to enhance my defense and resistance wouldn't really be maxing survivability, would it?

If I weren't that concerned I'd probably just not have taken medicine for aid self and gotten TP with those powerslots instead.

Just restating, this is a brute built to be a villainous tank, and the best tank I could come up with, with the highest possible numbers for damage mitigation (high def, high res, high regen, high self heal).

I actually have taunt now but I couldn't fit it into my tight level 50 build, so I'll have to tough it out for 3 levels after I get granite, then another 3 to get mudpots. Then my fury should build proper again.

[ QUOTE ]
Little concerned about Mudpots as well. Damage is actually nice and Slow is teh win to stop them getting away. Or you can always bully Syra to make a Kin Controller to come with you

[/ QUOTE ]
The thought definately crossed my mind. >_>

EDIT: Hmmm... I wonder if Inertial Reduction means a stoner could jump.

Thanks for the thoughts Kalgoras and Sinergy.

Well I know it'll be a tough ride and if I need to get up a ledge I'll have to go into rock armor and hope I don't get mezzed while I speed up. But that should (hopefully be okay).

I took hasten mostly for earth's embrace and rage. My attacks are actually all 2 slotted for recharge to get them up to base when hasten isn't up, so that should probably be okay.

I did some calculations and if I start a fight with Rage and Haste recharged I will have 4 minutes of continuous Rage. After that a 30 second gap, then another 2 minutes of Rage. I'm figuring that's good enough, I hope, and if I don't have enough fury to compensate after 4 minutes of fighting, I'm doing something wrong.

As for -slow sets. Well, isn't that mostly PVP? I figure if I suck at it, I just won't do it a lot.

The only thing I overlooked was that Earth's Embrace won't be up all the time with granite's -rech penalty. I'll just have to pray that I don't get one hitted while it's down.

Sorry, I just meant throw it up and take it down to move and throw it up again. Like I did for a couple levels before swift.

Anyway it seems the jury is still out on how well I'll be able to hold aggro without TP. I'll try to see how well this works without TP then. If it does work I'll be one happy camper since according to my calculations I'll basically be the best of SR/Regen/Invul sets put together. Meanwhile the -dam is negated by perma-Rage and the -recharge by Hasten and recharge SOs. Just leaves that pesky slow.

If it works I fully intend for this char to go toe-to-toe with Statesman.

[ QUOTE ]
Damn 4 pool limit...

A stoner without TP and with 3 slotted swift CAN be viable, but only barely...

And dropping fitness pool wouldn't be too good move either... Meh

[/ QUOTE ]
Well like I said before. I expect to only pop Rooted when I'm tanking an AV or a mob similarly ugly in mez effects and damage. Otherwise I'll mostly cycle it if I feel like it, or just stay out of rooted and rely on Aid Self for any necesary regen.

With 3 slotted swift I'm hoping that'll basically cut it, since it puts me at base movement speeds.

Mind you I should've mentioned that my stoner will have two modes:

1. Tanking mode. In Granite with 3 slotted swift. Throwing out taunts for fringe mobs, while running Mud Pots to keep AoE aggro as well as Footstomping for more. Punchvoking biggest baddy. Use Aid Self to top up health every now and then; pop rooted if it's a heavy mez/damage situation and I need the extra mez protection and regen. (shouldn't be that often since Aid Self is incredible for self heals) So I can still move a little most of the time. I read 3 slot swift and granite basically puts you at base speed.

2. Damage beast: Rock armor augmented with stone skin, tough and weave. Still 25% defense, enough to pop Aid Self. Hastened along with my 70% recharge slotted attacks. Kill everything in side. Cycle rooted if any when necesary for mez protection. So definately don't need TP for this.

That's what I'm wondering about. I never found that punchvoking anything is a decent substitute for aggro management powers on a brute. Sure it works for a little bit, but since we lack Gauntlet it's a lot of work to keep aggro that way.

My plan was to basically jump into the fray. Lock down the biggest meanest mob in there through punchvoke, then manage the fray with Footstomp/Mud Pots, and throwing out taunts to things not in my AoE range.

Would that not be sufficient? o.o

Mind you: I'll only be using Rooted in extreme fights, like when tanking a nasty AV. Normally I feel I should be able to get away with Granite's mez protection and Aid Self for regen. That means most of the time I'll be slow, but at least I can decently move between mobs.

See I would do that but as far as I know you only get 4 powerpools you can tap into, unless I'm mistaken which would be lovely, and I've already got:

1. Fighting
2. Fitness
3. Speed
4. Medicine

I know people will say Medicine is overkill, but with the upcoming recluse TF I'd rather have overkill on damage mitigation than too little.

And I am taking health. Remember this is a post 38 respec, and I'm getting it at 47.

And Weave might be "teh crap", as you put it, but it is 5% more defense. Coupled with granite this puts me at about 29% defense, and it gives me a higher chance of getting Aid Self off when needed. Defense will also be far more effective in I7 and between Granite and Weave I'll be as defensive as an SR scrapper who takes all their secondary powers.

Not really willing to compromise on my defenses, I'm building this character to be invulnerable. If I could've I would have even taken CJ for another 3% defense.

Really I'm happy for the comments on my build but as it stands I'm pretty much satisfied with it. I just need to know if it's at all viable to get away with not taking TP. To get TP I would have to drop my entire speed pool (and lose Hasten and perma Earth's Embrace, ick) and take TP and TP friend or foe instead.

[ QUOTE ]
I think more importantly its a brute without stamina

[/ QUOTE ][ QUOTE ]
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(31) EndMod(31)

[/ QUOTE ]
Um, no it isn't? O_o

This will be after I respec at 38 when I get granite. My current build doesn't quite look like this.


Name: Balaah
Level: 50
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Super Strength
Secondary: Stone Armor
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Punch==> Dmg(1) Dmg(3) Acc(3) EndRdx(5) Rechg(5) Rechg(7)
01) --> Rock Armor==> DefBuf(1) DefBuf(7) DefBuf(9) EndRdx(9)
02) --> Stone Skin==> DmgRes(2) DmgRes(11) DmgRes(11)
04) --> Earth's Embrace==> Heal(4) Heal(13) Heal(13) Rechg(15) Rechg(15) Rechg(17)
06) --> Haymaker==> Dmg(6) Dmg(17) Acc(19) EndRdx(19) Rechg(21) Rechg(21)
08) --> Knockout Blow==> Dmg(8) Dmg(23) Dmg(23) Acc(25) Rechg(25) Rechg(27)
10) --> Hasten==> Rechg(10) Rechg(27) Rechg(29)
12) --> Swift==> Run(12) Run(29) Run(31)
14) --> Super Speed==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Rooted==> Heal(16) Heal(48) Heal(48)
18) --> Hurdle==> Jump(18)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(31) EndMod(31)
22) --> Rage==> Rechg(22) Rechg(33) TH_Buf(33) TH_Buf(33) TH_Buf(34)
24) --> Boxing==> Dmg(24) Dmg(34) Acc(34) EndRdx(36) Rechg(36) Rechg(36)
26) --> Tough==> DmgRes(26) DmgRes(37) DmgRes(37) EndRdx(37) EndRdx(40)
28) --> Weave==> DefBuf(28) DefBuf(39) DefBuf(39) EndRdx(39)
30) --> Aid Other==> IntRdx(30) IntRdx(50)
32) --> Aid Self==> IntRdx(32) IntRdx(40) Heal(40) Heal(42) Heal(42) Rechg(42)
35) --> Foot Stomp==> Dmg(35) Dmg(43) Acc(43) EndRdx(43) EndRdx(45) Rechg(45)
38) --> Granite Armor==> DmgRes(38) DmgRes(45) DmgRes(46) DefBuf(46) DefBuf(46) DefBuf(48)
41) --> Taunt==> Taunt(41)
44) --> Mud Pots==> EndRdx(44) EndRdx(50) EndRdx(50)
47) --> Health==> Heal(47)
49) --> Minerals==> DefBuf(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> EndRdx(1)
01) --> Fury==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)