Kioshi

That's the beauty of DA. The stun aura is awesome for my 50 DM/DA scrapper because she has the 'boss killer' role, and because of that she was able to take the alphas in long story arcs that on a team that had two tankers - but they were Invul and Ice and all the mobs were psi, so even minions were problematic for them - my scrapper kept them stunned, dealed with the hard mobs and they wiped the stunned minions because they had plenty of AoE (both fire melee). OG allowed her to ignore minions (she was way more fragile than a tanker after all, on SOs at the time, lvl 40ish) and make the tankers' jobs easier since they were all stunned, and they did what I couldn't (mass murder mobs) because I only had shadow maul as 'AoE'.

Now my dm/da broot I'll get out of Praetoria someday (god I hate that she's 15 and I rolled her there, it's deserted even on Virtue) will have CoF because of the taunt aura since nowadays CoF won't be a huge issue to generating fury now that you can keep it at high levels with little effort (ok not 85-90% like before but I like the new Fury better, I can walk down a long hallway and still have 50%ish for the next mob) - plus fear stacking if I need it (taking ToF anyway for set bonuses from the acc tohit debuff sets). My Claws/DA Brute plays very differently since the mitigation is different, there's good AoE, etc. The +end proc has certainly made it easier to manage cloak of fear - I'd be happy now if they just gave it normal accuracy, it seems so wrong to slot it at the acc cap to have less than a regular attack slotted for about 45-50% acc.

The problem with capping neg resists is that it wouldn't be a game changer - because if they do that they may mess with the psi res, which IS one of the strong points of the set.

The OP didn't say he doesn't like it, calm down dude. He's asking why people play the set and he isn't exactly wrong in his assumptions - I had to get to 22 to start 'feeling' Regen, when I finally got DP and Recon to recharge in somewhat decent timers (SOs). He didn't post 'OMG I HAET REGIN WHY Y PLAY IT?'. As you can see most repliers understood he's curious about the reasons, not saying it's a bad set. And what if he wants to see if people can convince him? People do that all the time, 'Why is X powerset good? What are the positives and negatives of set Y?'. Hell I made a thread about being disappointed with Dual Pistols on a blaster not long ago and I was kinda bitter about the set, the replies were very useful and helpful, and in my third DP/ toon attempt I found out I liked the set (but on a corr), I'd probably given up if people didn't 'sell' me the good points (and the bad ones) of the set.

OTOH I actually had to get a Elec/Stone brute to 50 to realize I dislike Stone Armor, so experience is the best way imo, but I see no harm in asking why others like or dislike the set, regen or whatever else.

This last part made me reroll my BM/Poison. I don't mind redraw very much, nor the activation times, but it happens too often with Poison, I like my DP/Dark a lot, there's some redraw since I may have to use the heal once per mob, but not nearly as often as Poison debuffs, especially since unlike Fearsome Stare or Tar Patch, you will want to use Weaken/Envenom in each pink boss on a tough mob on a team instead of once and then going to town. Plus when I hit 28 (and rerolled him) I started thinking I wouldn't like to stay in melee because of the tier 9, since Beam has a great and fast recharging cone and the nuke is ranged too.

Also, Beam Rifle is a set that kinda makes you want to 'continue' the disintegration process instead of putting your gun away and do other stuff, that's why I find it goes so well with Traps. Send seekers, charge in melee protected by FFG, lay down your toys, hop out and blast away.

Just wanna thank you, I had a terrible day and this made me LOL

Yeah I know that, just looking for a 'possible' explanation because I don't expect consistency from the devs, lots of other things baffle me more than StJ having high end costs, like Defenders getting Blaster Ice Storm/Blizzard but Rain of Fire is AT-modded (while Corrs get Blaster RoF with Scourge), the Total Focus nerf while Seismic Smash still has a mag 4 hold with a 1.5ish sec cast time, KM having the only AoE that does 100% crit from Hide on Stalkers, well I could go on - although the scrapper sets are pretty well balanced.

See that's what I find weird. Soul Drain and Mires require nothing but 1 acc+3 rech to start being awesome. I never had a problem to jump in the middle of a mob and Soul Drain/Mire on any toon, and I'm not talking about crazy IO builds. My DM/DA scrapper just jumped in, I hit v (my bind key for SD) and done, I felt like I was in godmode. Same with the WS. It really doesn't depend on slotting/build because all you want is acc and recharge since there's no 'accurate tohit' set - so IO builds usually put some pbaoe set focused on recharge for these powers instead of adjusted targetting/gaussians. Eclipse is a no brainer too, acc, rech, res, better frankenslot with 4 rech/res and mire before. I'm not talking perma eclipse here, just the fact that it is the best warshade power beginning at level 39 when you slot it, it'll be up quite a bit already. I just don't understand how you can play dark armor well (I imagine since you say you like it so much, I also do) and find other powers that are mob-dependent like some DA powers having 'problems'.

I never said warshades are better, and I agree they have 'lower lows' than other ATs, in fact the only AV soloers posts I saw are in AE missions where they can put lots of mobs to fuel from.

And imo the only builds that can farm +2-4/x8 with SOs (from personal experiences) are fire/kin trollers (normal farms) and ss/fire brutes (ambush farms, much faster and effective) - maybe robots/traps since those can solo GMs on SOs but I don't play MMs and haven't seen people talking about them farming.

Usually they're Brutes, Fury really makes the difference on those.
My SS/Fire started at +3/x8 w/bosses with no set bonuses, I just used 4 purps to be at 45% def all the time. Since your Fury is so high all the time, plus it boosts the damage aura, inspirations rains. Now my broot is incarnated with loads of recharge (Spiritual and 90% from IOs) and has 30% fire def on his secondary build, only AoEs well slotted and all I do is use a macro to convert every insp to reds.

Same on lowbie farms, after I got the hang of it I got a claws/elec and a claws/fire to 33 in about 4 hours I think. It was a s/l farm that caps at level 3 so I used follow up and Spin on auto (since you get your powers till level 8 in a farm capped at 3) - after each Spin I was filled with insps so I just pressed f1-f5 like mad and that did the trick, that at 0/x8/bosses, entering the farm having used 4 purples and having another 4 when to use again, the farm was over by then and tickets were capped too. The main difference is that on my ss/fire I get more infl since I'm at +4/x8, in the level 3 farm it's more relaxing for me even since there are fewer buttons to press and I can keep Spin on Auto (I click hasten right before entering), on the SS/Fire I have to click Rage, FE, Footstomp, Ball Lightning, E. Fences, etc, on the lowbie farms I just click follow up and keep f1-f5'ing, there are so many insps dropping it doesn't matter, I always end up still capped on def plus some resistance and damage bonuses.

Out of curiosity, I tested the same farm on my 35 db/elec scrapper I leveled normally, used oranges and lucks before entering (I don't bother with oranges on the Brutes even tho their resists are low when exemped to level 3 since slotting doesn't matter in this range), and I just couldn't kill fast enough to get my insp refill so I got shredded. I suspect the fury-boosted damage aura and AoE is kind of a big deal especially in the low level ones where you one-shot everyone with a Spin or Typhoon's. In normal gameplay scraps may outdamage Brutes most of the time, but in those farms Brutes are extremely high on Fury all the time.

I saw some Tankers do 50 farms at +4/x8 and they survive, but they are much slower than Brutes. I think your scrapper, with liberal use of inspirations (oranges to get to 75% res, reds to boost damage) may be able to do it at say, +3 or +2/x8. I'm going to test my Brute at +2 and +3 instead of +4 because at +4 the tickets are capped before the first ambush is over so maybe it'll be faster at a lower setting. I'd also suggest you take a look at non ambush farms, they're slower but there mitigation from your KD attacks will help you much more than ambush ones.

Errr you ever looked at ingame numbers?

Eclipse caps your resistance, buffs recovery, mires and soul drain lasts longer than BU and are awesome buffs... In fact Warshades can farm quite well because of Eclipse and Mires, and solo AVs if they have mobs to fuel from.

You know the best way to use them is with more than ONE mob around right? Or are you gonna say Drain Psyche which works the same way is garbage too? I leveled an ice/psi dom without stamina to 50 (before it was inherent) because of that power, and after permadom she could stand in the middle of Romans PSW'ing them with capped recovery and regen, no defense at all.

No it wasn't adjusted, I'm just curious. Is it all because of BF?


Oh this isn't valid anymore - the 'way superior' statement. This was based on his calculations before the Fury changes for ST DPS, that Fiery Melee was a real outlier when he compared the Brute and Scrapper primaries. After the Fury changes I asked him if it was still valid and he said it was still better but not anything significant like before.

Anyway, here's the link but that's before the Fury changes, so Fiery Melee isn't like that anymore: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...70&postcount=1

And here on the top end chains with Gloom and IOs but still, before Fury changes: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...79&postcount=1

That's what I thought also, but Claws is great on Brutes. Sure it has different formulas for end/rech compared to scrappers but... Does DB really 'vastly' overperform on Scraps the way XX/SD does? I'd guess it could be worse but not to the extent of /SD.

About Fiery Melee, Bill Z Bubba said it was way superior on Brutes when they could maintain extreme fury, and that after the changes it was still better because of the DoT thingie, since now if you take a 'regular' set like Katana (only has BU, no permanent damage boost), scrappers outperform Brutes a bit like most others. Not that FM seems like a popular set for Brutes, haven't seen many ingame, just saying what the guy who did the most math I know on attack chains said.

Anyway this is just theorizing, I prefer Brutes (although my DB is a scrapper) due to the new Fury mechanic. I think the differences are so small unless you're soloing a Pylon that it's mostly a matter of preference, although I also like the fact that Brutes have Taunt - even on my farming build SS/Fire I can use it on a team to take teammates out of trouble, he just isn't good enough to be a main tank. Although actually he did tank part of a LGFT when the Tanker was with the other half of the team because he kills so damn fast it's not funny, I find his damage output insane, he's built for extreme recharge only.

Anyway I love Brutes, I know SD underperforms and maybe KM too (hate the animations anyway, personal preference), but since I may do a DB Brute someday I got curious, my DB scrapper is probably the only one I'm taking to 50 after the DM/DA one I made years ago. I have a 35 FM/SD too (did her when fm/sd and elec/sd were the main farmers but I quit the game shortly after) but I use her only for marketeering and winning costume contests because I put so much effort in concept and stuff lol, got 500 mil the other day (love Freedom, 4 am EST and big CC in Atlas ).

Totally, as you can see there isn't even slotting for endred in the shields, plus the accuracy is low on attacks with Smashing Haymakers. With more slots and after Energy Drain you can have a nice softcapped Broot ready for level 23 play! I did it to show how easy it can be without using the ultra expensive Kinetic Combats, but if I ever get to level my WM/EA past 20 (Praetoria damn) I aim at using level 30 or 33 sets to get him softcapped by then, I did it on my claws/sr scrapper (on melee/ranged since the aoe toggle comes late in scrapper SR) with aid self at 30. I find level 30 a good spot for most TFs/SFs and before that 30ish def is good enough to me with insps, Ea is a very nice set imo.

Why would DB/XX pull much farther on scrappers like XX/SD does? I'm curious.

The number crunchers in the Scrap forums also say that Brute Fiery Melee is ahead of Scrappers even after the Fury change because the DoTs scale with Fury.

Wait whut? How'd you do that? I don't recall the max recharge bonus I ever got on my /EA Broot because I've been playing my Stalker way more and Stalkers get 20% fixed rech. I think I got close to 34% max but I'm just guessing, and since he's still in Praetoria hell I was never at the aggro cap because well, even on Virtue that place is deserted so I solo or duo.

Duh, reading comprehension ftw.
It's a build skeleton to show how easy and early you can softcap an /EA.

That means you can get the toon to 35 or whenever you have slots to do things properly and be softcapped that early and go do early SFs or whatever. Never said it was build advice, don't be stupid, and the OP didn't ask for advice, just the opinions on the positives and negatives, (I thought it might be worth repeating the thread title for you).

You wouldn't want to softcap before having the unlimited end power anyway (which comes 4 levels later so at 29 you might be able to actually play the build just like that adding a kismet to help acc).

Kuji In Sha also gives Toxic Resist. In fact, it's the exact same power as Reconstruction. Reform Essence (the PB one) I'm not sure if it accepts Resist IOs, I'm on Mac OS X now so no access to Mids, and City of Data says nothing about Toxic res although it's the same power in healing and recharge as Recon.

Anyway Healing Flames would be better for this since its base recharge is 40 sec base versus 60 of Recon/Kuji, all three grant 15% toxic res for 60 seconds.

Yeah that's what I'd recommend and plan to do on my last Stalker for now, he's Elec/EA only because I'm a bit sick of Ninjitsu having played a EM/Nin to death when it took months of regular play to level. But imo Nin>all. Heck it's completely playable and survivable even if you skip Caltrops and Blinding Powder (I had both, respecced out of Caltrops and always forgot to use BP, although it is a good power - plus very nice for the purple confuse set, which was my main use because I simply forgot to use it, never impacted my survivability because Ninjitsu is that good).

Oh believe me, I'd like all the AoEs to be 100% from Hide, maybe except Spine Burst because of its radius (its chance to crit is already lower, 30%).

It just seems like... Nobody cares. They introduce Ice Armor and don't fix the HP cap issue. I don't think Stalkers need more base HP, but a cap lower than EATs is laughable because it looks like the devs gave that higher cap to the EATs just because PBs and Crabs can take full advantage of it. While Stalkers, meh who cares.

I couldn't level my KM/EA past 20 because I really hated the animations (purely personal bias, I like DB's and DP's for example, nothing to do feeling slow or anything). So the last Stalker I'm trying for now is Elec/EA because I'm tired of Ninjitsu and I was enjoying my Elec/Regen's damage until I realized her secondary was doing very little for me.

I think it was not quoted by anyone but me because nobody cares anymore about the power due to it being junk.

Removing the acc penalty and reducing the end cost (iirc it costs as much as mud pots, or at least as much as a damage aura but pretty sure it's more than the standard 0.52 from damage auras - can't check now, on mobile).

Being mag 2 and having -5% base to hit is good enough for me, I've always seen the mez auras as a way to ignore minions, plus CoF would be better on a Brute than OG since it wouldn't completely halt minions from attacking. Or on my DM/DA scrapper to fear bosses with Touch of Fear.