Hopeling

Personally, I just use Assassin Strike when I planned to, even if I happen to only have 2 stacks. Delaying it in hopes of a third Focus seems counterproductive, even if it would definitely work, because AS is such a good attack already with 2 stacks.

Accolades are also worth mentioning. If you're a hero or vigilante, the Atlas Medallion in particular is pretty easy to obtain, and that +5 endurance both increases your recovery and gives you more to spend before running dry. Fighting for a couple minutes solid before running into problems isn't so bad for an SO build, too, when using both a primary and secondary known for being rather endurance-hungry.

It depends on the enemies, and on your primary, but just being a Brute is not necessarily enough to get by in melee without defense. Melee enemies often hit harder than ranged ones, and many enemy groups favor melee heavily. Even with S/L or melee defense, I find it's often the melee enemies that rip me up the worst. You maybe could get away with it if you take good advantage of PBAoE knockdowns like Foot Stomp, I guess.

Uber, that would prevent long-recharge AoEs from ever having a 100% proc chance, and for many they would cap out far lower. This is contrary to observation, so we can pretty safely rule it out.

I'm pretty sure the level shift works identically to a real level as far as the Purple Patch is concerned, which is what makes knocks increase in magnitude. I just unequipped my alpha, set difficulty to -1, and hopped in a mission, and some 49 minions were being knocked down, not back, by my Whirling Smash. This makes sense mathematically, since a 1-level difference will increase mag .67 to mag .74, and the threshold for knockdown is .75.

"Down" is obviously a directional vector, but my point is that despite the name, knockdown doesn't make enemies move down. They don't change position at all, they just go through an animation and are unable to use abilities.

Extreme is, IIRC, supposed to be higher than Superior, but they're not very consistent with it. Fortunately, you can just look at the power's Detailed Info, or pull up Mids Hero Designer, and see the exact numbers rather than relying on poor descriptions.

It's not just a "prevalence", that's what knockdown is. Low-mag knockup isn't the same as low-mag knockdown, and I don't just mean how it behaves against lower-level foes. It is visibly not the same against even-con enemies. Knockdown makes enemies fall over; low-mag knockup makes them do that very distinctive Air Sup double flip that I've mentioned several times. And against sufficiently lower-level enemies, the Air Sup double flip turns into the KO Blow rise-and-fall anyway, which as any character with KU can attest, does not drop enemies back exactly where they started from. It's less annoying than knockback, true, but it would make very little sense for enemies to double-flip up then down when hit by most KD powers.

At the top left of the first screen at character creation, there are two big icons. One says City Of Heroes Freedom, the other says City of Heroes Going Rogue. These are buttons; selecting Going Rogue will make you start in Praetoria. Unfortunately, they don't really look like they're buttons, and are incredibly easy to miss. The GR button shows up (with the lock icon) even on my second account, which is premium, so it should definitely be there for you as a VIP.

I tinted the powers to bright colors and I'm calling it Ink Control, does that disqualify me?

I'd love to join, I'm @Rahiel, often on at strange hours though.

...but is that because your stalker was tougher, or because your stalker was just better built/more competently played, or even just because the scrappers were the ones getting shot at? Personally, I have never seen pretty much anyone on any team outlive my scrappers.

Brutes do not have higher damage potential, and they usually don't have higher damage in practice either.

But even if your premises were true, "slightly less incredibly awesome than brutes" is still a far cry from "useless".

Yes, that is the same sentence I first quoted and pointed out was incorrect.

I thought I was quite clear: knockdown powers are not knockup. These are specific terms with specific meanings, clearly denoted by their effects and labels in-game and in the City of Data links I have provided for examples. There is no power effect labeled "knockdown", I agree. But that's not because knockdown powers, or "true" knockdown powers (whatever that means?) are actually knockup; they verifiably aren't, they are low-mag knockback. Knockup isn't a synonym for knockback, or a subset of knockback, or a misnomer that some players use for certain kinds of knockback, it is a separate and distinct thing of its own, although it uses the same type of enhancements.

That's exactly what the prompt says it will do when you check the box: "Unpurchased pieces will no longer be visible for selection. Costume will be reset. Are you sure?" So I'm not sure this is a bug, but it sure is annoying. It would be far preferable if it would clear only unowned pieces, if that's at all possible.

Samuel_Tow said it better than I was going to. Scrappers are, mechanically, totally straightforward and vanilla. That is WHY I like them. I don't think they need buffs, at least not as a whole. Maybe for a few specific sets, I guess. But I'm not particularly bothered by someone who thinks they do. I may disagree, but not viscerally.

But when someone says scrappers need something "unique", some kind of mechanic that makes them special, my gut opinion shifts from "meh, whatever" to "keep your dirty paws off my favorite AT." Actually, it shifts further than that, but I will refrain because profanity is against forum rules. When I play a scrapper, I don't need to worry about whether I'm leveraging my unique mechanics optimally for the situation and my team. I don't need to rush from spawn to spawn chasing fury, I don't need to set up assassin crit combos, I don't need to gather aggro. I just hit things, and they hit me back, usually in vain. Not only is this extremely low-maintenance play that lets me focus on the fun, it also feels more "super" to me (I know that's always an incredibly vague statement, but I can't think of a better way to say it). Any enemy, any time, anywhere, I fight them head on, and I usually win, without needing to worry about or rely on a gimmick.

Plus, with 2 combo levels for every AS, you can get a lot more out of finishers.

If they couldn't charge for the sets, I doubt I would ever have gotten to play Street Justice ("Use the alt animations for MA we already have, duh") or Titan Weapons ("Use one of the other three heavy melee weapon sets we already have, duh"). And I love those sets. So I feel that yes, the practice is absolutely justified, and I am very glad they're doing it.