Blind_Minotaur

The only filmstar I could imagine playing Blind (mutation brute) would be the late, great Oliver Reed. Not sure if that breaks the "rules" as he's obviously not with us anymore? That and I can't find a decent picture of him.

Edit - Mind you this one isn't bad. If you're not sick of making these yet Pious, could you see what you can do?

I'm always up for a RSF - Blind Minataur lvl 50 Brute (SS/EA).

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Blind_Minotaur: How many recharges would do then with both Lightning Reflexes and Hasten, i'm guessing just the one...that way can slot ToHits in the others and move a slot from another place to make it 3 ToHit.

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The base recharge for Rage is 240 seconds with a 120 second duration. Hasten gives you a 70% recharge reduction and LR gives 20%. So when Hasten is running (with LR of course) there will only be about 15 seconds downtime. I'd put one recharge reduction (allows for some recharge debuff) and 3 Tohit buffs in it personally.

You can't avoid the 'down time' on rage anymore so you might not want it overlapping. I found it really annoying not knowing when Rage was going to crash. In the end I decided that having a few seconds of double Rage wasn't worth the annoyance. Also, put some Tohit buffs in Rage, you'll notice the difference.

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Very fun idea! If I may, I'd like to reserve the gorgeous Rosario Dawson for Echo Taker, a Magic Defender.

(Though Echo has white hair, sorry! )

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What? And ditch your awesome I10 Bunny Invasion Avatar

Edit - And no offense meant to your equally awesome Avatars Pistol.

A rather amusing post about PPPs that I pilfered off of the US boards (credit to Manchuwook):

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Zeb (A.K.A Lord Recluse) Cook: Hey, with the villain Powersets, why don't we make them based on the "Patrons" in CoV?
Matt (A.K.A. Positron) Millar: Hey, that is a great idea!
Recluse: Okay, so for Black Scorpion, we should have something that works like Force Mastery, with Focused Accu-
Positron: No.. we made that mistake with the heroes and it made them too overpowered.. we need to tone it down a bit for the villain-side
Recluse: ...okay.. like how?
Positron: Well, for the top-end power, we were thinking of a pet based off of the patron that they can summon
Recluse: Hey! That is a great idea, they could have a team of three blood--
Positron: --no, that is a bit much.. we're thinking just 1.
Recluse: Okay.. just one... but it'll be elite boss level, and hey, we can use that new code that keeps control-
Positron: --it will only stay out for 2 minutes.
Recluse: Okay.. so 2 minutes out.. 6 minutes down..
Positron: Fifteen
Recluse: ...fifteen..
Recluse: Okay, what about the other power sets?
Recluse: I have this cool idea for Ghost Widow--
Positron: Well, over in accounting they were just kicking around the idea of copying the powersets to save time to fix the code problems with some badges not working..
Recluse:...
Positron: ... and we really want to push the new Hamidon and Statesman task force, we're going to end up wasting an entire issue on CoV.
Recluse:...
Recluse: [censored] this noise, I'm going to work for Stray Bullet games.
Positron: Don't let the door hit you on the [censored] on the way out.


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Made me chuckle anyway

So I'd like to make a toon specifically for duelling. Is there any AT powerset combo that can stand up to the might of the Rad/Psi defender (and to a lesser extent Rad/Son)?

Does such a toon exist or should I adopt the "if you can't beat them, join them" mantra and just roll a Rad/Psi?

You're more than welcome. Please bear in mind that I'm not saying my way is the only (or indeed best) way to play EA but it works for me. EA has a bit of a bad reputation as one of the weaker Brute secondaries but personally I love it (and I've played all but Stone to a high level). Hope you have fun.

Personally I have a lot more knowledge about the EA set than the EM set but my gf plays an EM/EA so I’m not completely clueless how this operates and will try to offer advice on both sets. I’m at work at the moment so can’t post a build so will try to offer general advice instead.

Looking at the builds posted here one thing I would like to say is that you will find fury generation very difficult. My first point about this is Barrage, I really don’t like this on a Brute and find it detrimental to fury, although it is a minor damage fast recharge attack it does have an annoying animation. Although people’s mileage may vary I really do not like this power and would choose energy punch in its place.

In my opinion EM/EA is one of the hardest brutes to gain fury with but there are ways around it. Personally I would want a fast, low animation time, low endurance attack chain to build fury and then switch to my big hitters once it’s high. I would have an attack chain like this: Brawl > Boxing > Brawl > Energy Punch > Brawl etc. This I would do until my fury is high and then start throwing Bonesmasher, TF and ET into the mix.

I do not like Energy Cloak. It certainly has it’s uses, especially if you solo a lot, but in a team you want to be seen. As EA doesn’t have a taunt/damage aura I find Taunt a much better choice than Energy Cloak as it allows me to keep aggro and as a result high fury in a team. Energy Cloak will have the opposite effect, again I guess it depends on playstyle. One bonus that Energy Cloak does have is a 3.75% Defence to Psionic Attacks, this is the only form of psi defense you can get (outside of IO set bonuses) for an EA Brute. You get 3.75% defence to almost all forms of damage but you will lose a lot of this once you start fighting; is it really worth it?

A tactic I employ with my EA Brute utilises all three of the final powers, Energy Drain, Conserve Power and Overload. Once you notice that Overload is about to drop, click Conserve Power, as soon as you notice that your blue bar has started to drop hit Energy Drain (or pop a blue or two) and if timed right you will not suffer the crash, your toggles wont drop and you can carry on fighting as if nothing has happened. It takes practice but it really is an awesome tactic.

Another thing about Conserve Power, and I’m not sure if this is a bug (as the effect isn’t listed anywhere) or its WAI, is that it seems to protect you almost completely from End Drain attacks. I can stand in the middle of a Carnie Spawn when they die and my blue bar will not budge, I can laugh at Malta Sappers as they try to drain my End, again my blue bar will not budge. End drains effect me when Conserve Power is not activated so I concluded it must be CP protecting me.

One of the bonuses about PPPs being so poor, especially for brutes (unless you’re a fire brute and want an immob for burn), is that you don’t have to take them. This allows you a lot more freedom for picking up powers like your passives (which aren’t bad IMO) and pool powers like the fighting pool. I would definitely try to take both Dampening Field and Tough as this will give you a S/L resistance of 18.75% (unslotted) which isn’t too bad if you ask me. As mentioned in a previous post passives have become a bit more desirable if you are planning to slot IO sets. Pick up the passive resist powers as well as Tough (instead of PPPs?) and you can collect not only defence sets but three resist sets as well.

Lastly, and I think this was mentioned already, slot Overload with Health enhancements. At level 50 you gain around a 600 hp boost UNSLOTTED. My hp bar goes to well over 3000 when Overload is active, that increases your survivability just as much as the 45% defence to all but psi.

That’s about all I can be bothered to type right now, hope you find it useful.

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The new Vanguard material should imo put all Tanks on edge if they try to solo on Unyielding or most certainly Invincible XD .

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Out of genuine interest - and sorry for the complete thread derail - but... why?

Bloodforce, I have to give it to you. You went away and came back with a wide range of recent nerfs to powers, just like you were asked to in an earlier post. But, I'm not sure that this is your real issue here. You've said it a few times in this thread; You're bored. Nerfs don't really take away the entertainment value (at least for me) from the game - they are only numbers. You get to shoot laserbeams from your eyes in this game; if you enjoy doing that then it shouldn't really matter if the laserbeam does 50 damage or 500 damage.

You mention that your not happy that there have been no new ATs or powersets in a while, and that villain epics haven't been added. TBH I'd love to see all these things, but I'm patient enough (and enjoy the game enough) that I'm prepared to wait for them to surface. They will turn up eventually - In the meantime I'm going to give the Rikti a bit of a kicking and carry on collecting my IO's.

The fact you've mentioned a lack of new powersets tells me that you're probably an altoholic? If that's the case you can't seriously tell me that you've played all possible powerset combinations available both in CoH and CoV to a reasonable level??

I've been playing just short of 2 years now and I'm nowhere near bored. Sometimes I can log into the game and feel a bit uninspired, but to be perfectly honest I think that that is down to me, and not the game. When that happens it's pretty obvious that I'm not in the mood for playing and I do something else.

You say you've tried taking a break but although you love this game you are bored.

How about doing something else?????

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I find people leveling, teaming and soloing to be quite rude. It's amazing how many people just don't reply when you ask them if they want to join a group. A simple "No thank you" would suffice... but literally 60-70% don't even reply on both CoH AND CoV.

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Please bear in mind that not all of these people will be being rude. Some might be afk, others might miss the tell (it happens to me sometimes as I don't play with sound on), they might be a member of a few busy channels and miss your tell. There are many reasons why someone might not reply, one of which could certainly be that they are rude

Sorry to hear that you cant make it tonight now. Hopefully Bru will see this and lead tonight. If not i'd appreciate it if you could give me a shout next time you are running one. Thanks.

Your IO slotting is very similar to what I'm working towards on my Brute. Please don't take this the wrong way but I hope you have a lot of inf and/or patience as they are very expensive sets.

Personally I'd try and get a few more slots onto jab or boxing and slot another set of Crushing Impact there instead of Pounding Slugfest. If you can find a way to 6 slot both jab and boxing that would be another 5% Psi Res.

Not sure where to get those slots from though. Maybe save a couple of slots from Stamina? A single IO gives a decent bonus, plus you have some +recovery and max endurance from your set bonuses.

Bear in mind as well that you suffer a -25% penalty to defense when rage crashes. Certainly something you need to consider when picking a defense based primary like Ice. You used to be able to avoid the crash in rage but sadly it is no longer possible.

How is it looking for tomorrow night Paycheck?

Hey Sisc0. I would advise that the best thing you could do would be to try and join an active supergroup, that way you will get to meet a large group of people. There are some super groups that have threads in the section of the boards. Maybe try posting there.

Also you could try joining some pick up groups (PuGs), i find that that is the best way of meeting people. Find someone you like and add them to your global friends list.

It can be hard to find teams sometimes on cov. I usually do a search for players at my lvl range. The player names that are "greyed out" are the ones that are already in a team. Try sending out some tells to these players letting them know what AT your playing, your level and that you're looking for a team. Works for me.

Sleep also has another (rather un-heroic) use. Generated too much aggro? Sleep the mob and wait for your friendly neighbourhood fire blaster to kindly pick up your unwanted aggro. Not very useful at higher lvls but can save your backside in a low-mid level PuG.

Thanks for the quick reply Praf, its as I feared. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Sorry to gatecrash this thread but reading it has got me rather worried.

At the moment I'm concentrating on collecting IO sets for my Energy Aura Brute. The EA defence powers are typed defence. I’ve tried to increase my defence as much as possible and as a result I've focussed on sets that grant any additional defence. As I already have high defence values to all types of damage except psi am I wasting my time trying to get bonuses that increase location based defence?

As I say, sorry for gatecrashing this thread but I'm worried that I've wasted a lot of time/inf/effort.

Thanks Paycheck. I would'nt be able to join tonight but next thursday would be great. Let me know if that's ok.

It's been quite a while since I last did a RSF. Was just wondering if anyone is running one in the near furture and needs an extra Brute tagging along. If there is one running on Saturday or Sunday this weekend then that would be great.

Not yet. I haven't played him for a while and is currently 45, shouldn't be too hard to get to 50 with double XP.

To be honest I will get round to playing both a PB and a WS but wanted to know which would be best to start off with, just to get a feel for how the AT works. From the comments it seems that I'll go with a PB first and see how I get on. I fully expect to mess up my first attempt anyway (vet respecs ftw )

Should everything go to plan I'll be able to make my first Kheld very soon.

I've done a little reading on them but I find I learn a lot better by actually playing an AT.

As a first time Kheld player would you recommend a PB or a WS and for what reason?

Also and advice on how many forms I should factor into my build (I don't want it to end up too complex).

Thanks for any advice

I only really venture into the zones on Union and I haven't even done that since I9 hit live. I've been far too busy collecting sets for my main. It won't be long before I start going back in their as I nearly have all the sets that I'm after. I'm sure many people are doing the same.

Also there has been a bit of an influx of new players lately, once they get to the required levels I'm certain there will be some fresh meat to fight.