Deus_Otiosus

I made some edits.

I didn't mention anything about overpowered or not.

My comment was that Time is not necessarily more powerful than Rad, Kin, Dark or Cold. I still stand by that.

I have no problem with sets like FF being reviewed for some kind of performance improvement. More good sets is good for everyone.

No, but they ask for Kins and Rads pretty often.

I think time is a very good set, but this thread is full of people comparing Time to sets that are largely considered under performing (like Forcefields & Poison).


I don't believe this set is stronger than Kin, Rad, Dark or Cold.

If you haven't already, you might try a Fire/Dark Corrupter.

Pretty concept friendly (I went for Magic Origin), very strong mechanically and it has both Blaster (Fire Blast) and Controller (Dark Miasma has great soft controls) elements.

It requires no buffing at all, your heal is an incredible PBAoE heal that also debuffs the enemy, as well as your "rez" being an auto-hit stun with -500% regen attached to it.

It is both solo and team friendly, has great performance out of the gate and great performance at L50.

You will have all of your core attacks and core dark powers by L20.

I use Cims on any support character that can keep them alive in melee.

I use Cims on any character being built for the best DPS I can give it.

I use Phantoms on most other characters as they are concept flexible, have a good mix of ST DPS, decent AoE (the aforementioned FSC) and they can fly (which is situational, but I find they tend to keep up with me very well in most situations due to flight).

Every once in a while I'll grab pets just for concept for example the Arachnos pets for my Crab.

I'm not sure why they are so far ahead, seeing as several other pets (like the Arachnos pets) were toned down in beta (I think even the cims got toned down).

They are the most melee focused pets IIRC, the WW Lt as a primarily ranged combatant and that might be where the drop in their respective DPS numbers comes from.


I don't have any of these issues with Phantoms, and I've used them on a handful of characters.

I find that they fly very often as long as the character in question is airborne (jumping or flight) often.

It's also fun to watch FSC crit for over 1K damage on a handful of enemies.


The link in my sig should have the most up to date list, which includes Clockwork (I left them out on accident originally).

You're only comparing PU + Farsight to just Scorp Shield.

You should be comparing PU + Farsight (22% M/R/A) to Farsight + Scorp Shield (34 SM/L & 27 E primarily).


These are the better reasons, although you will need to always time and cast both PU & Farsight together, and will not be able to put either on Autofire. Missing PU will also mean no longer being softcapped.

The other main selling point is 3 positionals vs. a handful of typed granting better coverage with the drawback of having to coordinate PU & Farsight.

Easier will make it a nice option for some players.

I don't have a build budget limit, so it's not really a factor.


That's true, I still need mids to play around but I don't think I'll have a hard time getting there regardless.



I don't have a single Corr at the moment that isn't both Softcapped to SM/L with Energy not far behind, while also having 170-190%+ rech depending.

I agree though in general, that it will be the easier way to go - much as Tankers are the easier way to go for, well, Tanking.

However with a large enough budget, that can all be covered to a sufficient enough level to let the higher offensive advantage really shine.



I went Corr because Rain of Scourging Fire is a wicked mistress that will not be denied.

What kind of damage are you getting out of Spring Attack?

As for Burnout, the only use I could see for it would be to run OWTS back to back, otherwise for something DM/SD you don't really have all that many super long rech powers to make great use of it.

That's true.

On the other hand, once you are softcapped, you are softcapped.

And no Time Corrutper will be having all that much difficulty softcapping.

For teams/leagues, it will come down to a variable of who is or is not IOd
and how many other sources of +DEF are available.

I'm of the opinion that generally even most leagues on iTrials have DEF overflow.


As for the PB/Farsight combo, it's tempting but until I see it in mids I'm not sure I really want to hassle and make sure I cast them both together just to get to softcap - since it shouldn't be all that difficult to softcap anyway without it. (Which will leave me free to go Mu instead, for SM/L/Ene Resistance, to stack with Tough, as well as 1 or 2 End management tools if I feel I need them.)

Stalker and Tanker are pretty specialized in what they do.

If you want specifically that style of play, it's not really necessary to compare all of the details between them and Brutes/Scrappers.

I will note that the Tanker will be ludicrously easy to softcap, but people will expect you to tank for teams. Take that as you will.

Brute vs. Scrapper for this particular combination will be mostly stylistic as well as some slight playstyle differences.

As we only have the beta numbers for Street Justice, most of my comments will be fairly general.

Damage edge should go to the scrapper, however the combo system + non-persistent damage boost should see the Brute not too far behind.

Survival edge will go to the Brute with higher HP, and therefore higher HPS - this comes with the caveat that the Brute has a taunt aura as well as punchvoke and will be generating solid threat whether you want to or not, which means you will be taking a larger share of incoming damage. Most teams will also expect you to fill that role as needed.

There is also the Fury mechanic, which for a lot of players is a "love it or hate it" thing. YMMV.

That's a tough question.

I'm not sure how end hungry BR is yet, or what the top end ST chain for it will be.

Those would be deciding factors for me personally, as I know I could rely on /Rad's extra rech to help meet any higher end rech requirements as well as the +recovery boost that perma AM brings.

I also find the AoE Slow component in Lingering Radiation extremely valuable for my style of play, which generally involves a lot of near melee range kiting.


Clarion can cover the mez protection at 50 for a Rad, but that's only at 50. It also means that Sonic can probably go for something other than Clarion, so there is that.


It's a tougher choice than I had thought at the start.


I'll be going rad most likely, as it allows for a fairly aggressive style of play. Can cover the mez protection with Clarion and has a self/PBAoE heal.

I'm also a fan of rech, and recovery boosts wherever I can get them as well as making the most out of people who die a lot by turning them into bombs (which happens often enough at the feet of AVs on trials to be less situational than it can sometimes be).

Not necessarily.

Corr LR was bugged for a long while and the slow component wasn't working.

It wasn't fixed until i20.

I'd probably (and might) go rad personally.

In AV fights at the endgame (where I focus my play), I find it's one of the least clicky sets available against hard targets (where BR will shine imo).

Drop toggles, hit LR every 25-30s, and then just blast away.

On the other hand, I think Sonic provides a ton of benefit to a team - especially when many teams/leagues seems to be swimming in +DEF from IOs and buffs (which are pretty common).

Interesting.

While RA isn't one of the better heals in the playground, I don't think I would ever skip it.

It's still a way to top off the team, or keep your own HP up as well as being able to take Doc Wounds for a little bit of Rech.

Its not an unrealistic scenario, and I build specifically to deal with that situation when it comes up.

So I agree with the main points of your post.

Are you just hanging back and firing at them?

That might be the difference.

I tend to hop around a lot on the edges of the crowd as well as into and out of melee while I kite them. So usually they are slowly (LR debuff) chasing me in circles.

Even then it has a 15 foot radius.

I don't have an issue with you preferring one of the other, but you are saying you prefer 6% Defense vs. up to -40% to hit because of a few runners.

Even with a few runners, I think RI is still the better method of self protection vs. most enemies.

I use a sturdy anchor and then LR the entire mob for that.

What's there to feel about it?

You are fighting L1 mobs, with low HP and you are artificially entering the "mission" at the damage cap and staying there due to the amount insps you get.

This will never, ever, happen anywhere else in the normal game.



The rest of your post is more of your arbitrary criteria and your endless blather.

That's an interesting point about faster completion for the Brute.

I agree, the taunt aura is most likely a factor. Another might be that while Scrapper DPS crits average out well over time for DPS calculations and pylon tests, perhaps they don't work out as well for AoE attacks that are often an important part of task completion.

It's not that they don't contribute per say, or even that they can't be averaged in - but more to the fact that dead is dead and crits can't be controlled - so there might be an element of corpse blasting crticials going to waste as opposed to AVs/Pylons where the burst simply improves the overall averaged DPS.



I think it's possible, especially if you plan ahead and pack a ton of higher tier inspirations, but SM/L Res buffing from Allies is unfortunately not all that common imo.

You have:

Kinetics, through ID which most people skip (which is a shame, especially as its AoE now).

Sonic, which is not a very popular set.

Thermal, which might be the best set to make your overall case - as I think this will be a fairly popular set once its proliferated.

Pain, which is not a very popular set.


Neither Cold nor Dark provide SM/L resistance unfortunately.


I don't disagree, and that's one of the reasons I tend to choose Brutes over Scrappers. However I build with the intent that I will be responsible and very possibly solely responsible for handling a team's worth of aggro.

I agree completely that aggro control is a valuable tool for teaming.

On the other hand, it simply is not the designated role for the AT (at least in the modern game as the devs have defined Scrappers in the melee damage role but not tanking role). Scrappers aren't designed overall as aggro holders.

They are survivable, they are armored so to speak and perhaps a handful of players like yourself (and myself) recognize that when there is no one else to do it, you should step up and try to soak as much aggro as possible, but it isn't actually the seemingly intended role.



I agree with these points.




Do you happen to know when this running mobs issue began?

Is it a bug that has been introduced, or is it design intent?

If I'm correct, Barrier and the Shield Wall unique make up for 8% of that advantage in your build vs. what I posted which would be a fairly standard IO build.

So yes you can get to 60% SM/L on DA but it requires T4 Cardiac, T4 Barrier and the Shield Wall unique.



However, I would actually reverse my advise if the build was Katana/DA as opposed to KM/DA.

Katana not relying on a persistent damage bonus for its performance will see the Brute's offense nearer the Scrapper's than is the situation with KM.


This is also a good example of what you were saying earlier about how its not very often that we have a clear definition of which AT makes out better.