Ehina

Anyone knows if they activated it ? Someone told me that he saw the "refer a friend" button on the account page, but I havent read anything from them on that matter.

One of the several reasons I choose a Brute or Scrapper over a Stalker each time I start a new toon.

I always felt AS was too slow and clunky for my playstyle. Of course it might be just me, but I wouldnt mind a real strong buff to AS.

It could be something like the old Energy Transfer, fast, non interruptable, hits hard out of stealth, does nothing while not stealthed. And it wouldnt make Stalkers unbalanced in any way I guess as it doesnt get into an attack chain, it's just an opener. It would fit a fast and more fluid playstyle.

Maybe I'm asking for too much, I don't know, but that would get me interested to play stalkers again for sure.

Yea "sadly" SS is the closest to what you're looking for, and it comes from only one power Foot Stomp (coupled with Rage also, but mainly FS).

- Fire is not bad with FSC, and slotted for range Fire Breath will be at best decent.
- Claws is fun but resisted alot, and it's biggest area AoE does KB.
- DB is fun too like claws, but its AoEs have small areas of effet.
- Stone Melee, I love this set, but its AoEs are more about control than damage.
- And of course there is Elec. Elec is fun for AoEs, even if sometime you end up waiting a bit too much for LR to recharge, but its single target dmg is heavily lacking and it's sometime frustrating.

My PB is alot of fun, and at the same time certainly not my most powerful toon at lvl 50. It really depends on what you're looking for. Could PBs need a few tweaks here and there ? Certainly. Have they been made unplayabe because far too weak ? No I don't believe so.

In my case, a tri-form build is working really fine for me in most endgame TFs. I like the ability to switch forms and switch roles according to what the team needs at a certain moment, or what would be the most effective. The versatility is alot of fun.

And a last point, PBs as Kheldians in general are not meant for solo playing, they really start to shine while being in 8 man teams due to their inherent. There you'll see yourself often sitting at cap resistance in dwarf form and/or with a large damage bonus. That's when you contribute the most. Most players who try to solo or duo-level their PB gonna get disappointed due to this inherent mechanic. It makes a huge difference.

To answer your question, I don't think your build can sustain the endurance cost of your attacks (if you like to spam whatever is available). I can't be sure either, could be close with Consume on a good recharge timer. I didn't run any calculations, they would be a bit trickier because you don't have a clear attack chain in this build (and miss one single target attack in my opinion that you would have to replace regularly by an AoE while fighting a single boss or elite boss). It can also depends on your playstyle.

Anyway I made some modifications, trying to remain as close as possible to the spirit of your original build. The data chunk at the end is what I came up with, and once again it's more a way to present different options you can take or leave than saying : this is the way to do it.

So a few explanations :
- Focused Accuracy is a real endurance eater, and doesn't provide anything that useful. It's barely 8% to Hit bonus while full slotted and a single kismet already gives 6%. It also gives 20% accuracy, but you have largely enough acc bonuses with IO sets. The most useful thing there actually is the Perception bonus (against some Arachnos NW debuffs for example). Also 6 slotting it with Gaussians and the proc (that triggers only once every 200 sec on average and lasts only 5 sec) doesnt give that much of a benefit : you're more looking for typed than positional defenses, and it's only 1.25% bonus to all typed, not that much for 6 slots. So not taking it frees 6 slots, and a power slot we can do alot with.

- Your single target chain in the original build is lacking, I really think you need Stone Mallet there, because even if you use Burn in a single target chain you'll have some gap where you want to use Tremor or wait 1.3s for Stone Fist and in both cases it's a loss of dps. So Stone Mallet takes the slot left by FA. (And note that even if you'd want to take only one attack among Stone and Heavy Mallet, I'd take the first one, because it looks cooler, and you wouldn't have to wait for single target attacks to recharge, but it's just me).

- With a unique Kismet and one slot more in some attacks, you have enough accuracy to hit with 95% chance against +3s, so you will rarely see an use for more.

- Hasten is ok with 2 rech IOs when you add the Spiritual, because the Spiritual counts as the 3rd one, there's almost no gain with a 3rd slotted IO there.

- The Perf Shifter proc is better in slots like Superior Conditionning than any endurance IO because it's always a net 0.20 end/sec gain on average wherever you slot it (procs 10 endurance every 50 sec on average). For example in your original build the end IO in Superior Conditionning would be only a 0.08 end/sec gain.

- One or 2 anti KB IOs is the same in practice. So either you choose to get 1, and you'll get occasionnally knocked back (happens sometime on Fire/Fire but rarely), or you want to almost never be KB and you get 3 of those.

- Some attacks need to be better slotted for end reduction (single target attacks), as well as Blazing Aura. The defense gain of getting Stone Mallet with another set of Kinetic Combat makes up for the lost of FA with the gaussians, and the 6 slot bonus in Blazing Aura.

- Stamina needs more slotting than Sup Conditionning or Phys Perfection, because it has a higher end recovery base. So any endurance slotting slot left goes to Stamina and those 2 are very fine with just a PS proc.

- As your build doesnt rely really on +regen, but much more on that great Healing Flames heal, getting weave slotted with an Enzyme spares one slot. Enzymes are great for expensive defense toggles, and give more defense bonus than any IO in the game (a little bug exploit here tbh that went mainstream a long time ago and everyones uses freely now).

- With the spiritual counting as an additional recharge IO in your attacks, your purple slotted attacks are better with a Damage instead of a Dam/Rech IO.

Once again, those are just ideas presented in the form of a build. I think that those should work on the endurance side without a cardiac (better end recovery, less end consumption, better slotted attacks toward end reduction). Feel free to take what you like and change what you don't.

Have fun !

EA has one of the best T9 in the game in my opinion.

- It can propel your HPs and regen to unseen levels for a defense set.
- It adds alot of defense too, some defense debuff resist, and will negate most of the defense debuffs for its duration.
- The crash doesnt affect your hps and should be negated with a blue inspi and an Energy Drain.

It's a defense set with no endurance issue, a few welcome resistance numbers, and a self heal that becomes far from insignificant once you get surrounded by tons of mobs.

To be perfectly honest I havent played it yet, could never come with a good concept build for it. But what I could do on Mids with this powerset looks really pretty to me.

On the other side, if you don't work on your defenses early, I can imagine it's not the most survivable to level with. It can certainly be painful with SOs. But I'm pretty sure it has some endgame potential with the right sets

Your build looks solid to me.

I won't go far into the details but just a couple remarks, and they're more about how I would build things for myself, so feel free to take and leave here.

- You didnt set an Alpha on mids, but more probably you already have an idea about it. Anyway on a SM/FA the cardiac seems to be the right way because those powersets, especially SM can be very heavy on the endurance side. Getting a good cardiac could spare you a few slots here and there, and at the same time even with a cardiac you might find that some of your powers could use a little more end reduction. My Fire/Fire with a cardiac has more slotting toward endurance than you, and when she runs around spamming AoEs, I must not forget about hitting Consume pretty often.

- I wouldnt choose the Energy Mastery way (unless it's thematic) for a SM/Fire. You have already largely enough kd with Fault and Tremor, and you want to stand in the middle of the packs. So Energy Torrent (a range cone) would seem a bit redundant and not that good. I would rather get Fireball or Elec Fences + Ball Lightning. Of course not having Focus Accuracy (good riddance of another not that useful end burner) would require a little more slotting toward accuracy for some of your 4 slotted attacks (a kismet unique for example, always handy). But you can easily pull off something that hits +3s at 95% chance, and that's all that you need once you're level shifted. I think you can check that by using a 48% base to hit in Mids Configuration.

- Force Feedback procs in Tremor and Fault do wonders on the recharge side. In the middle of large packs they proc alot (% chance to proc by mob hit and not by cast), and give +100 rech over 5 sec each time. I wouldnt miss those.

- If you want to raise your defense to SL to the 40%ish level, even to the soft cap, it's possible, you'll need to 4-slot Boxing and Brawl with Kin Combat (and it makes a big difference when you dont want to rely on inspis). Get rid of Fly for SJ and take maneuvers. Yea I know, I like Fly very much also as a travel power, and I hate it each time I talk myself into not taking it just to gain 3% defense. But it's an option. My Fire/Fire brute has 41% there, a much cheaper build than yours, and farms SL maps +3/x8 like a breeze (I know she could also stick to Fire farms, but I like having several options for farming). But anyway, 34% SL for most of the game is already very fine. You just eat a purple when things get tough. Really depends on what you want to do here, and I guess that contrarily to my Fire/Fire you have alot of mitigitation from your primary, so you could run as good with less defense than her.

- Another option on the defense side is to use 3x Eradication and 3x Cleaving Blow in your PbAoEs, and that should get you your E/N defense into the 35% range easily. Once you have at top like 45% defense to SL and 35% defense to EN with a big self heal and some decent resistances, you're a really really tough Brute (of course as long as you dont get this defense debuffed). But that has a cost of loosing some global recharge on the other hand. So again, that's just an option.

Anyway best luck with that toon, you have chosen 2 of my favorite powersets, they have a very nice synergy together. It will certainly be alot of fun to play with !!

I agree the crashless nukes are better than the usual nukes. It could use more balance here. Just let the other nukes as they are but remove the end recovery debuff and make them half a crash (like the recent T9 from Willpower and Shield).

I got the same issue on my new Brute. I completed the Barracuda SF with friends while leveling, then the notice didnt drop for me twice after that while i was 50 (one Barracuda and one Kahn, both with the alpha slot unlocked and equipped). I thought my character was bugged.

If I knew about this before, I would have never completed this SF in the first time while not being 50.

It's pretty good news, and will bring many more possibilities for characters with really tight builds (/SR, /WP, /Elec scrappers... when you have to take almost every secondary picks are good examples).

I'm pretty sure Fitness as inherents will be slottable, that would not make sense otherwise and it would be a massive nerf for max level toons, very unlikely to happen. The question is rather : what will happen to your already built toons with slotted hurdle/health/stamina when the patch goes live ? Probably the build would not change until a respec, and then once you respec they go inherent ...

Anyway, it confirms the recent very animated threads we had about "endurance issues", and it seems the devs have read, made their choice and decided to add some QoL to that matter. I can only applaud.

I remember LR used to deal several ticks of damage at the same time, now it's one single tick on the whole zone and 2 in the center.

I could be wrong then remembering LR doing the same damage on the whole zone, if this impact thing already existed. I slotted this elec/sd and pretty much put her on a shelve just after (I felt like cheating playing her ).

Maybe they just incorparated two different ticks into one. My bad then.

I played a mission with my Elec/SD scrapper to test the new changes on Shield Charge. Approximative numbers using BU, with AAO around 6-7 on level 51 enemies.

Before GR : LR hit for 700, SC hit for 700 on the whole radius
Now : LR hit for 500 (+200 but just on the impact point), SC hit for 350 (+150 just on the impact point)

The change for SC matches what I expected from the beta boards, but I did not read anything about LR being changed ? Can anyone confirm that ?

I did not read the whole thread, but just wanted to post my 2 cents and answer the OP question, from my subjective perspective and experience.

I'm having a hard time figuring out a satisfying IO build on my level 50 Claws/SR I really enjoy playing, even if concept wise it's one of my favorite character ever. On mid-expensive builds (not needing any purple or pvp IO for that purpose), I usually manage to get more survivability in most situations from my other scrappers, and with also more room to choose my secondary powers (SR requires to take pretty much everything but Elude).

If this toon was to remake I would not choose /SR as a secondary, my mids-fu and the set don't get along very well

- The possibility to suppress the graphic effects on the powers which mess with your costume : Hasten, Dark Armor toggles, Fire Armor, Elec Armor... etc. That would be giving those the alternate animation : 'none'.
- New animations for : Dark Melee, Stone Melee, Fire Melee, Claws, Katana. (I would have put Energy Melee on the list if it could involve making the set more fast-paced and enjoyable as it is now, but I guess it's out of topic).

I agree on the KB side. I never saw any reason why Dark Armor, Ninjutsu and Fiery Aura should not have any KB prot, other than "just because". Even if it's not a big issue due to KB IOs being fairly common. And I will not use the 'but the game is balanced around SOs only' argument, because I never bought into it in the first place

Another question : any word on how Fiery Embrace performs on brutes ? Does it add a % of the low base dmg only, or of the improved dmg with Fury ?

Shadow Meld will certainly be a powerful addition to many scrapper builds. The only flaw is that it's a 3 sec cast (on Mids), a bit long for my scrappers in action...

Another point I need to confirm, but I read that as a Vigilante you cannot access to contacts in Rogue Isles. It would mean, that unless you want to play on villain side, you have to turn your scrapper completely to villain, run the patron arc, respec to shadow meld, then back to the hero side... Not sure though that if you want to tweak your build and respec it after that you have to redo it all or not, maybe not

Thanks for the clarification Arcana.

Also yes Silverado, I'm a bit worried about the Fury lower cap, but I'll have to test it before making up my mind on it. Reading about it was kinda confusing, it looks like a nerf on the paper, but I was surprised that many players seem to see it as a balanced change or some kind of buff.

BrandX, I feel the same as you, I think it will be optimal on the scrapper, and less optimal on the brute, while certainly still being playable. But before making up my mind, I was just wondering if someone ran the dps calculations for top ST chains on both ATs. Because there is a difference in being 'more' optimal by a 5-10%, or a 20-25% margin.

I still have much to catch up... and reading hundreds of feedback posts the same evening can be sometime overwhelming, so thanks all for your clarifications

A question about Scrapper vs Brute Kinetic Melee :

Reading the feedback thread I understood that :
- Power Siphon is a 20 sec self buff that allows you to stack +%dam buffs using Kinetic Melee attacks. It has a 2 min base recharge.
- Scoring a critical on the tier 9 attack (scrapper or stalker) insta recharges Power Siphon. However there is no similar effect for Brutes (or tankers).

It makes me think that we'll get much more of Kinetic Melee on a scrapper than on a brute : a scrapper benefits more from the +%dam buffs of Power Siphon than a brute, and furthermore will have regularly a chance to insta recharge Power Siphon.

Is that correct ? Has there been some end-game calculations on the main ST dps chains of KM on a scrapper vs a brute with mid-high recharge ?

I want to start a hero brute with GR, but I'd also like to try Kinetic Melee. Both at the same time would be cool, but I'd really like to be sure first if a IOed KM brute is a viable choice compared to a KM scrapper or not.

Thanks