Grey Pilgrim

Maybe it will be seen as more worthwhile with the inclusion of the end game system, but... supposedly you're going to get incarnate salvage (or whatever it will be called... hopefully something different, as Arcana has suggested) running the STF, LGTF, etc. So that doesn't really add up, either.

There's nothing wrong with wanting rewards for things, either. I like pretty much all the TFs at the end of the game, but I'd enjoy running them less if they didn't hand out rewards (as the rewards and tweaking out my characters is part of the game's fun as well).

Oh, and thanks for the rundown on how it works earlier, I appreciate it. I hate getting lost or not knowing what's going on in a TF, let alone a raid. I'll have to play it to know if it's "fun" or not, but the shard has some fun and interesting atmosphere, so I may like it for that.

I have to update for the I18 changes to Fiery Aura, keep in mind. So Fiery Embrace is now more worth it for all attack sets to take, as it adds a fire damage bonus to all melee attacks for twenty seconds. This affect is improved by slotting for damage in an attack, which is important to keep in mind when slotting.

Burn is also worth it again as the Fear component has been removed, and it does more of its damage upfront, rather than being only a DoT. Combustion and Fire Sword Circle do have larger radii and can hit more targets (Burn can only hit five at once), so there are some tough choices for my builds. If I take Burn, what should be dropped out? I'm still working on that bit. When using Burn, remember the front-loaded damage, too. You want five targets in melee with you when you activate it, otherwise anything that comes in after will not receive as much damage (because it is front loaded now).

Last, Tankers received a new ability for their first tier attack, called Bruising. It will debuff a single target for -20% resistance... so it's worth using Scorch on a hard target as much as you can. The debuff cannot stack with itself, but its duration can be increased. It's a nice bonus against hard targets like bosses and elite bosses.

Having to make up for the KB hole does hold you back from grabbing more worthwhile things that other defense sets (other than DA) do not have to worry about. More recharge, more defense, or improving your powers is more meaningful than grabbing something for fun (and that's a worthwhile thing, too). Nothing in DA or FA makes them so good that they should have to make up for a KB hole that the other sets don't even have to worry about.

If that's so, those debuffs are extremely out of whack, or the resist to the debuff is not strong enough. That -res patch they tossed out dropped my resists by half last night.

Well, I do think Fiery Aura might need some resistance to resist debuffs. That and Healing Flames are its only mitigation, so for one Longbow grenade to take off HALF of my S/L resistance is ridiculous (and yes, I have thought it was ridiculous on my "villain" ATs as well). Not sure if Temperature Protection is a place to drop it, or put some in both shields, or what. TP isn't that bad now, though. You get hit by debuffs a lot with Fiery Aura, so the slow resists from TP are most welcome. We have end recovery resists with Consume now, so I think the only things that might be nice are resist to resist debuffs, and possibly defense (though I've said elsewhere that might be nice for all Tanks and Brutes to get inherently, at least a little).

You still have the stuff you paid for, unfortunately, they have tied in character slots with access to the store, for some reason. So they really do need to fix this issue. But implying that they took your money and didn't give you something is a bit over the top. The store will be up soon enough, and you'll have access.

I don't like it either, mind, but I don't want people being more upset than they need to be.

It's even weirder when you think about deleting a character. I deleted a character and instantly had that slot disappear, rather than being able to make another one. Poof! Weird, and the implementation makes no sense.

I figured out the workaround as well, but it's still frustrating. Extra slots we have unlocked should be untied from the store, or they need to make the store more stable (this happens a bit too often, especially when you really want those slots... this is the 4th or 5th time I haven't been able to use a newly unlocked slot due to the store being down, and I have long stretches where I don't play). I know that's probably tough, but my account knew I had access to GR after putting in the code, but my extra two slots were nowhere to be seen. Something in there is not tied to the store, and it would be nice if slots weren't as well.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up, Ocho. Hope it happens sooner rather than later.

I rather wondered about this as well. Though the devs seem keen on making "tough" content more tough than tanks can take on their own (if Reichs hits you with that one attack, it's enough to mez tanks, most tanks need a little support or inspiration use to tank Recluse buffed by the towers, etc.). They could design appropriate encounters, I think.

Some of this is user perception, though. People look at an all Controller Mo run (or all Scrapper, Blaster, what have you) and state that this means Tankers are not needed. No, what it means is that no AT is not needed. I don't need a Controller on an Mo run, or a Blaster either, though they can be nice. And Tankers are certainly nice to have on Mo runs: I prefer having two, actually, if aggro hits the fan.

Which leads to another perception thing. I don't think the aggro cap needs to go higher... if a team is having issues with the Tank going above the aggro cap they can get another Tank, or adjust their strategy. Or get another AT to help with the aggro.

Yup, I agree with you completely. Thought Vanden was joking in the OP, but his response makes me not as sure. Anyway, having defense does help Shields out quite a bit, though Shields will have less consistent performance than Fiery Aura (defense being what it is, a resistance based set is easier to know how it will perform all the time).

Fiery Aura at least is in competition for offense, whereas its lower defensive capability was not offset enough by its offensive capabilities before. I still think it should get some KB protection, but... I'll take what we're getting.

Thanks, Dechs. Man, Cloak of Darkness is awesome... so many other stealth powers suppress. I'm making adjustments based on what you were saying.

I grabbed Gaussian's for the AOE and Ranged defense, with a bit of S/L goodness thrown in. But if CoD doesn't suppress, I don't have to worry as much about the Ranged defense (I like having some AOE on melee characters for when they fight Carnies). Part of me would like to finish slotting out Thunderstrike on Focused Burst, but oh well. I'll throw a Hami Damage/Range in there for the 5th slot.

Thing about Power Siphon is that you want it to recharge often, so I still need 4-5 slots in there. With 4, you can put two level 50 recharges, or 5 would allow slotting with Adjusted Targeting for a few more good bonuses.

I usually grab Numina for some more Regen as well, so I'll debate that one. Miracle might be okay since I'm not grabbing Regen anywhere else. I was not aware that the chance for +end was with each target... that's nice. Thought you got the one 20% chance and that's it.

I'm not sure what you mean about Reactive Armor. I only 5 slot it at most as well. Dark Embrace has two Imperviums and 4 reactives for defense and a little +recovery. Also, Weave is at the ED cap for end reduc from the 6-slotting with Red Fortune, so that should be okay. If you meant Tough... I dunno. I'm planning on not using it if I can avoid it, but I put in the slots for bonuses and to have them in case I do need it from time to time. I may put one more in there depending on what I do with Power Siphon.

It doesn't suppress? Sweet. I'm used to powers from Devices and Warshades suppressing.

Hmmm, if I add in Theft of Essence, I miss out on a permanent increase to the character's end (I really don't want to give the power another slot... not sure what I'd take it from). It does sound like a nice effect, I just don't know if it's worth missing out on an extra 2.25 end all the time.

? Was playing on my Fire/Fire Tanker tonight and loved the change. Just need to respec into Burn to enjoy that as well.

Yeah, I don't begrudge it either. Sheesh, some of the pre-purchasers are complaining they're getting gypped, too. Can't make anyone happy with how some are behaving.