EarthWyrm

I'm not sure what evidence you need other than the real numbers that tell me I have 30 feet from Celerity: +stealth and 35 from Energy Cloak. They're listed as independent effects.

I don't believe there's a stealth radius a brute can achieve that will keep something they're standing on top of from attacking, if the thing is aggro-capable. I'm sure that if I'm wrong, though, someone will correct me.

Right, that was the point of the demonstration.

Things that can aggro will aggro if you're close enough. The Celerity suppresses within a short range and leaves you with only the Energy Cloak, which at that range things will see through. I'm not sure of what you're trying to demonstrate with this last part.

There is nothing to manage once you have Rage to the point where it's perma. And it takes very little effort to get it perma (base 4 minute recharge for 2 minute duration means you need 3 recharge SO's plus maybe a little in the way of set bonuses to get there). If you can click Rage again before it wears off, you have the -damage debuff, but you don't have the -defense.

I disagree. Once you're at the softcap, inspirations are used more for flavor than survival. DM has better synergy, but the knockdowns in SS actually work nicely as mitigation. I hit 50 with mine the summer after CoV went live, and he's far and away my most played alt. The number of hours I have on him is honestly embarrassing.

The sets play just fine together, once you understand how to manage the crash and make it a non-issue.

As to the OP's build...

I don't think the Shield Wall unique is worth the price for the 3% resistance it provides. Did you mean to include the other 3% defense unique instead?

If you could get 2 more slots into Energy Drain to slot it with 6 red fortunes, that would be nice. It would also let you use a slightly more end-friendly slotting of Footstomp than the 5 Oblits that you're using presumably for the recharge bonus. I like 4 Erads, Dam/End from Multistrike, and the FF proc. More +HP is good, but I'm not sure if you need the defense Erad offers. More never hurts.

The two slots for ED could come from Energy Protection and the sixth slot from Energize (probably dropping the heal/end) since the 6-slot bonus isn't that impressive in DW.

Anything beyond that gets into playstyle preferences. Overall, the build looks solid, so that's what I saw at a quick-ish glance.

My testing indicates that things are functioning exactly as they did at the end of Beta.

Level 50 ss/ea brute
Zone: RWZ, grey area
Powers used in testing: Entropic Aura, Energy Cloak, Sprint (for Celerity: +stealth), Super Jump (just cuz)

Test phase 1: Only powers active are Energy Cloak, Sprint, Super Jump
Initial stealth radius: 65 feet

Walk up to level 35 mobs. Bump up against them. Stand there, but do not attack. Stealth radius drops to only the 35 feet attributable to Energy Cloak.
Mob reaction: Nothing. Mobs that are -15 do not attack you unprovoked.

Test phase 2: Still standing beside those same mobs, turn on Entropic Aura
Stealth radius remains 35 feet. Mobs show green debuff rings around their arms from the aura.
Mob reaction: Mobs attack.

Feel free to try it yourself. This is completely consistent with what I've been seeing since before the issue went live. With the stealth from Energy Cloak still not suppressed (per the attribute monitor), I get attacked by things that should not aggro on me immediately upon, but not before activating Entropic Aura.

Still not a redname, but I got briefly hung up on a piece of geometry running through a map last night on my /EA brute with a Celerity: +stealth global running, and the debuff in Entropic Aura notified a nearby mob to shoot at me (nice little green rings around the arms).

No screenie, but these weren't Rikti drones or snipers; they were level 20 CoT in the weekly SSA.

I'll take a look at things tonight. If I can now stand beside a -46 mob and not notify it with entropic aura, that would be an undocumented change from the end of Beta condition of the set.

If you feel like a hostage to this game, I would recommend a break. That's not healthy.

Epic thread is epic.

Can somebody Godwin this monstrosity already?

That being the same steely eyed seriousness that led to two sets getting taunt auras kludged into their mez protection powers, of course, in one case modifying a core capability of the set.

Mind you, I don't disagree with your core point. The cottage rule isn't exactly in the same form it was a year ago, though.

They didn't need MARTy to identify that ambush farms with self-rezzing enemies were insanely popular. There were (and are) unmoderated forum threads describing how to leverage them, and those AE arcs were being shut down even before this change went into effect. People who think MARTy was needed for, or even involved in, this change are ignoring all evidence to the contrary for reasons that elude me.

On-topic: If purples drop a little in the near future, I won't cry. They've crept up to the point where I don't even bother setting aside a market slot or two to low-ball them any more, since past a half-billion I don't think of a bid as a "low-ball". There are many better ways for me to get wealthy in the market that don't involve letting 300-500m just sit around doing /em nosepick.

FBI meh. Got a friend who worked in the Philly office of the Secret Service in their (my name, not theirs) cybercrime division.

I once made the mistake of asking him if they really had access to everything people did on the web.

[Oh - hi, John! Hope you're enjoying the transfer down to DC.]

Any belief that you have any privacy once you start sending information via the internet is... quaint. At least NCSoft spells it out.

Thank you for clarifying precisely how much attention you believe the members of the forum ought to give you, going forward.

If you're posting to get a response that amuses you without wanting to be constructive, I believe that constitutes trolling. You certainly come across as being intentionally disruptive at this point.

You're basing that on generic social rules ("about a game forum") that you've gleaned from other MMO forums. You've been told what you NEED to do to ensure that what you say gets heard by the right ears on THESE forums. If you choose to ignore that advice and instead rely on generic norms rather than local norms, that's on you, but local norms are always more precise and actionable than general ones.

That hasn't been my experience at all.

My experience with crafting is that there is a learning curve, but it's not particularly steep, most mistakes that don't involve mis-clicking are of a type that won't be made more than once, and the crafting system allows (a) people who want to never worry about their enhancements to never have to worry about their enhancements and (b) people who want to min-max the system to min-max the system. Which seems like a nice balance, particularly since crafting is totally optional.

My experience with the community is that, by and large, it's a very helpful place (particularly in the market forum, where folks routinely give detailed information on how to get stupid-rich), but that it doesn't react well to (a) people who make blanket statements about "the community" that paint us in a negative light or (b) people who suggest overhauling systems which, while not perfect, do not represent the best possible use of developer time or resources in the present game environment.

I phrased that badly and it came out sounding greedy when that wasn't my intention. I don't envy players with more. I don't know what to do with what I have, so why should I? I find it strange ("sad" was a poor word choice) that I have so much fake money that I can't reasonably spend it, but there are people with tons more than me. I just have a hard time conceptualizing that level of wealth, given my RL background.

OTOH, I think it actually IS a little sad that I have played the game enough to get that stupid-rich. I probably ought to go outside more.

Just to be clear, that was 2 level 52 membranes - not 52 membranes. I only have 3 membranes total in storage (2@52, 1@50). Well, 6, but I'm too lazy to respec the 3 off the scrapper I never play. I may get around to that after the new issue drops, when I can get a second enh tray to pull some of the other things off him that might be useful.

I was more impressed with JuliusSeizure's numbers; I've only ever bought one set of Panacea, and that was because I was bored and wanted to see how long it would take at my cheapskate buy-point. 20 sets of 5, minus the proc? That's one crazy storage bin!

I would pick EA over Ice. Do I get thanked as well?

I know you're not speaking to me at all, but I agree.

It's sad what a dogpile a thread like this can turn into. Welcome back from PAX, Posi. Seeya posting again some time next year...

Or perhaps the tendency of people to follow the path of least resistance to getting whatever they want has more to do with it.

Warning: Sarcasm
Because there is absolutely no precedent with this game's population of people flocking to AE buildings to level whenever a new exploit is discovered.
/end sarcasm

"Easier" and "Faster" has been shown to draw people away from fun content (assuming you believe any of the 1-50 content is fun, of course - I won't deign to speak for you) in the past. There's no reason to assume that adding an option that requires no organization of a large group and no reliance on other people's ability to follow directions, wouldn't lead to a large-scale shift to that option if the rewards were even close to equivalent.

I suspect Posi's just managing expectations. I also suspect that there are people who will never be satisfied with whatever solo/small-team path gets put into place.

I stumbled across Caprica in the middle of one of the v-world scenes with the girls in a black, empty room, picked up on the reality-bending elements of its concepts, and set the DVR to capture the whole series.

I was annoyed by the end of season one, and ticked-off by the end of season two. The show flat-out tried to do too much and offer too many different forms of commentary while referencing and trying to incorporate (and build upon) an established mythology. The show that tries to do everything Caprica tried to do in the length of time it had available is never going to provide a coherent entertainment experience. I hate to accuse the network responsible for "Dinoshark" and "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid" of creating muddy, incomprehensible programming, but Caprica never lived up to its potential.

Which is a shame, because the simple sense of wonder and possibility that went along with that one black-room scene was enough for me to imagine an entire universe of possibilities they never prioritized exploring in the way I would have liked.