Rhysem
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Posts
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Joined
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How about the "nerf" half of the request quality-of-life-buff (which it'd be massive, I'd be a lot more apt to play shield types) be that shields don't stack from the same caster anymore... even when you zone.
I'm just saying, I could totally live without the 100% immunity to mobs on pretty much any character, squishy or melee, that the short-duration double-stack gives if I found shielders/buffers more fun to play.
I thought the buff refresh if a teammate is within your big bubble (or fog/mist) to the max 4 minute duration was a great idea. Still worth having the buffer, but they don't have to be a slave to the clock, nor does it force the buff on everyone, yet they are still in danger to keep the buffs up, and it doesn't unduly benefit botting the buffer. (Really, if you're botting them like that, you just bot the whole thing with auto-keypress tools. It isn't like it'd be substantially harder to do than auto-following.)
Yes it requires code. And? So did the alpha slot. Anyone want to shout it down since it required code? -
Quote:Assuming* the PSU can really deliver 500W, you aren't going to blow it. I've got 2x 24" LCDs, a stereo amp, CFL light, router/modem, and oh yeah two machines, one i5-750/ati6850 one c2d-6600/geforce9800+ and that all plus the UPS, which itself is drawing... 440W from the wall (with CoH loaded on the i5 box) according to my kill-a-watt.Originally Posted by NewScrapper
Only thing that leaps out at me is the 500W power supply seems a little low, but that's just my gut feel talking, not any real knowledge on my part.
If you aren't doing psycho overclocking, SLI, or massive HDD based RAIDs, you are unlikely to dissipate more than about 200W to 300W per box full-bore.
*: Yes, yes. That stupid joke with this word. It holds true some though, because how vendors rate PSUs isn't by any means an exact science. -
I feel safe saying you will get more overall utility out of a larger SSD and dropping at least the CPU from the 2600 to the 2500 (k or not) and being able to stick more programs on the SSD as opposed to just the OS.
Put another way: Paying $110 extra on the CPU for .1 Ghz over the 2500 is not going to provide more performance than a SSD that's big enough to hold programs.
That said, I'd wait for the C400 and other second-gen SSDs that got announced a week or two ago. Buy the box now if you want and load on the HDD, then transfer to the SSD via reinstall later. -
Next gen SSDs were getting announced at CES earlier this month. I'd wait for general availability on them before buying. At the very least it'll drive down prices of 1st gen stuff.
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I've got an intel G2 160 gig drive. My system is noticably faster than with a spinning disk that it had before I upgraded to the SSD. The windows logo at boot doesn't finish animating before I hit the login screen. I zone consistantly faster than friends with HDDs in a number of MMOs and similar-spec systems/settings. In general I can watch them vanish as they start to zone, click, and still beat them through. I haven't done extensive CoH testing, though I have noticed my CoH zones seem to take a long time to start with no SSD activity going on.
If you built your own system and spent in the 150-200 range on your cpu and graphics board, the SSD is the next biggest (overall) upgrade you can give the system. There's a reason the first-gen netbooks with the anemic Atom processor and their "slow" SSDs were as fast as they were -- with a HDD it would have been torture to use one. -
This "problem" is based on a set of preconceived notions: that character names must be distinct. Given the global @names now available, I don't see why that needs to be true any longer.
There's some code that'll need to be done (so if you '/tell FiveGuys, Hey' it sends you back a list of the globals the 5 different toons named FiveGuys are). Ditto for mail, though I don't know that much anyone uses it other than to mail themselves or their friends cash/IOs/recipies. Possibly an option to display the global name under a character's name.
None of said code is particularly difficult to implement.
Poof, problem solved!
It does mean you're potentially less anonymous than before (people can track you across characters) but given the amount of globals running around chat channels, I ask 'so what?'
It also just shifts the contention to "I can't get a good global name" but since that's basically a 1 or 2-shot pick to get yours and since it doesn't need to "fit the character" that seems fairly reasonable. Also, the contention is a lot less -- you don't have people with 36 accounts like you do with character slots. Nor do you have people making alts on other servers to reserve 'their name' just in case.
Side-benefit: there's now no "political" hurdle with combining servers and/or going serverless.
Signed,
Someone annoyed he lost the name he got on Pinnacle when his friends group largely moved their play time to Liberty and he tried to transfer his main.
PS: I'm part of the problem: I recaptured the name on Pinnacle. Thanks for asking. -
I would strongly suspect a ELA scrapper is going to get eaten alive at +4/x8, based on a well-IO & purple'd ELA brute of mine. I'd try it and probably live on my brute, but that's more based on Stone Melee's mitigating knockdown giving me time to power sink + ball lightning the mobs end away.
Might consider Kat or BS / SD. They've got some solid single target DPS, plus a bit of +def to help you out as needed if you get def debuffed. -
Quote:While that's nice, they didn't back in the day.Originally Posted by Westley
Considering that Rikti portal Conscripts and Behemoths that come out of portals give ZERO XP.... yeah, have fun with your "farming" of those.
Actually this spawned a whole big discussion between my wife and I. Our conclusion was:
1. The game started with hunter/gather (go after existing resources -- this is your "ranching". Hunt for mobs, gather for blinkies. Alas Kora Fruit, we don't miss you.)
2. The game moved to animal husbandry (ranching for reals!) with the Rikti portals and behemoths -- using critters you find to generate more of themselves.
3. Now we're in the farming era, where you go from nothing to something via AE.
Somehow an appropriate progression. -
Quote:I'm pretty confident that the rikti portal farms, behemoth summoning portal farms aren't ranching.Originally Posted by Westley
What is farming? It's growing food for harvest.
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Quote:Don't bother testing. They can. My SM/ElA brute has them do it while they're being juggled all the time. 5 KD abilities and they can still cast it (chance for KD in Ball Lightning from Mu Mastery)Originally Posted by Luminara
Knockup/back/down.
Though, with the bug that allows Behemoth Overlords to use Healing Flames while knocked down... I don't know if it affects Freaks or not. I'll have to try to find a way to test it.
Mostly I find it piss annoying to have to go back and re-clear one guy. Or do they no longer block kill-all missions? I think they used to, though I might be wrong since I could just be finding the spazzes who fly all over the friggin map at sight of an enemy.Quote:No, you were right, I failed to take a few builds into account. Though I will say that those few builds which do lack any status effects also have sufficient other resources (meaning, pure damage output and/or high personal defense) to make the question of whether they could would have to be concerned about Freaks using DP a moot point. Make Dead/Make Dead builds don't tend to be terribly bothered if the occasional critter takes an extra 1-2s to make dead.
Freaks need to keep their mod because they're just too annoying. If they didn't rez, this discussion wouldn't be happening. It really means the devs have their risk:reward framework setup wrong. They're looking at per-mission or something. -
Sure. With the big price swings I see on purples, the only question is getting the first 200 million and are you lucky/patient? If you timed the I16 or Going Rogue drop right too, that'd make it easy as cake.
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AC was historically epically bad at fixing exploits. They would, but they also had no way to go back and un-do the damage, no log of who started it so bans would have meant half the server population, and it usually took them a month or two to fix it, in which time everyone and their brother had done the exploit. I'm not talking small stuff either; I'm talking producing in-game cash via crafting in total safety at absurd rates, full-afk combat botting (they've still never solved that), item dupe bugs, and probably more. It didn't really effect balance either way, but it did screw with the economy something crazy.
What's really funny to me here is the blame-the-farmers. Heads-up folks: farmers don't care about the XP or Inf off the mob. It's a drop in the bucket compared to a purple drop, good pool A's, salvage, merits, or tickets (your pick).
Unless we've got proof that the IO/Enh/Salvage drop tables are altered by these changes -- any xp/inf nerf is meaningless to farmers. Good job fixing those farmers up good! -
Very nice work and a nice writeup. On one hand, I think this should be saved long term. On the other hand I'd like it to vanish into obscurity so that we don't get too many folks who flood the niches and result in them drying up. Otherwise my money printing machine might die!
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If you do typo in it ("Optoin" was mine) it will simply fail to have any menu whatsoever.
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Seeing if they are charged is a good point, but if it isn't charged it'll be obvious pretty quick. "bwuoh" and no animation.
It'd be really nice if the devs would add a slight extension to "powexecname" like "say trying to run power name&&powexecnameorfail power name||failure message" so we wouldn't even need either of those workarounds. -
Do we know what the main game menu is called? It almost has to be definable in there given how that menu behaves.
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This is made of win. Now I can quite overflowing my bars.
A couple ideas for folks;
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Option "&Base Portal" "powexecname base transporter"
Option "Pocket &D" "powexecname pocket d vip pass"
Option "&Flight (temp)" "powexecname raptor pack"
Option "&Jump (temp)" "powexecname zero-g pack"
Option "&Mission Teleporter" "powexecname mission teleporter"
Option "&Ouroboros" "powexecname ouroboros portal"
Menu "Custom &Targetting"
{
Option "&1 Focus Fire" "team Concentrate fire on $target (my target)"
Option "&2 My Kill" "team I'll handle $target (my target)"
Option "&Cairn" "targetcustomnext Cairn"
Option "&Quantum" "targetcustomnext Quantum"
Option "Q&uartz" "targetcustomnext Quartz"
Option "&Void" "targetcustomnext Void"
}
Menu "Accolades &V"
{
Option "&Boost Mez" "powexecname vanguard medal$$powexecname megalomaniac"
Option "&Freeze Ray" "powexecname crey cbx-9 pistol$$powexecname stolen immobilizer ray"
Option "Psi &Def" "powexecname elusive mind"
Option "&Recharge" "powexecname gaes of the kind ones$$powexecname force of nature"
Option "&Shield" "powexecname eye of the magus$$powexecname demonic aura"
}
</pre><hr />
Oh, one note worth mentioning; I've remapped my "open quickchat" key to "v" (played a lot of return to castle wolfenstein back in the day...), which is why I picked "V" to activate accolades. 'cuz when you need that accolade shield up /NOW/ there's no time to waste.
Edit2: typo fix on base transporter -
That slotting could be improved quite a bit.
A steadfast prot +3% def/res isn't any more expensive than the purples it is loaded with. You don't have any miracle or regenerative tissue (at least there is numina's there).
If you're going for perma-hasten, the 3 rech in it is worth it. If you aren't, accept the 5 more seconds down and put the slot somewhere more useful.
You aren't slotting RTTC for -tohit on the enemies, that's a mistake.
Your purple slots are wasting a lot of the damage boost against ED cap. You'd be better of swapping that one out for the proc from the same set unless it is carefully calculated to kill minions in one foot stomp (since I see it elsewhere in the build, I doubt that).
Whatever bonus you're getting from the 5-slot def or res, you'd probably be better off 3-slotting them with hami's, combining the 6 or 8 slots with other next-to-fully-slotted things (gaussian's comes to mind, rather than adjusted targetting in rage for the 6-slot defense bonuses) and getting the 5th/6th slot bonus of something else.
Crushing Impact is slotting the wrong 5 IOs. Drop acc/dam and slot the other 3-fer instead. See my how to build a brute guide here for why. -
SR got skipped because, well, at the time I wrote it, it didn't exist! (at least, I think it didn't) I added SD since I have a SD scrapper and some experience with it. Just hadn't thought about SR.
Fault certainly can be unproductive, but on the flipside, it'll keep you alive and once your fury is built, you won't have trouble maintaining it, even using fault. Rockfall certainly uses fault every spawn (no taunt either) and doesn't have a problem with fury (nor really did he while leveling... once I got conserve power and then respecced to power sink).
Taunt could be good, but if you need to taunt, that means you weren't first in the spawn. In that case, there's a much easier way to fix the problem, without using a power slot. :-)
But of course, to each their own! -
Good point. So edited. I actually wrote that about 6 months ago, but then had some time away from CoH (tried OtherBigNameGame) so hadn't bothered posting it.
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How to build a brute
A guide to help with those awkward "what power do I pick now" type questions for all brutes. -
This is my main, red-side. Please note this is not a theoretical build, this is what I have slotted on Rockfall. With global +16.6% To-Hit and +81% Accuracy bonuses, I'll only notice trouble hitting when there are 4-5 Nemesis LT's worth of vengeance on a mob. My resistances and defense aren't great, but between Fault, Tremor, and Power Sink they are more than sufficient. My standard attack plan is: charge in, Tremor, Ball Lightning, Power Sink, Tremor, go find more mobs. If I have friends with I usually shorten that to Tremor, Ball Lightning, find new mob, Tremor, Power Sink, repeat. Sometimes if I missed a LT or didn't quite have enough fury I'll need to use ST attacks to poke the LTs to death, or the odd guy who is outside of that 15 foot radius of death. If I'm concerned about a spawn (double boss spawns), I go in with Fault queued, Ball Lightning, Tremor, Power Sink, SS the boss, Tremor, Heavy Mallet the boss, Fault, ...
The biggest change I've thought about making would be swapping out Mu Lightning for Electric Fences. I usually use ML for blasting runners, and EF could do that nicely as well, plus it would add to my AoE damage. The bad thing is it'd also stop my knockdown in Fault and Tremor. Fault will still disorient them, but now Tremor won't. I'm a bit concerned I'll keep getting myself killed with that. I could also swap out Leadership for something like Fighting to buff-up my S/L resistance and defense a bit, but for how I tend to use Rockfall I don't feel the need. Sure, I don't take 8-man spawns solo. I take 6-man spawns. Well, I've got 4 other friends who I play with, so that's just fine. If we have others invited to the team I can be certain that my friends aren't going to pass up the ability to nuke the living crap out of an 8-man spawn, so they'll be with me. There'll be at least one Corrupter or another Brute to split the aggro with. Actually, I haven't tried 8-man spawns since I got my Absolute Amazement: To-Hit Debuff slotted. I might fare a lot better now when 1/3 the mobs I hit with Fault will be taking a 20% To-Hit Debuff.
This build is perma-Hastened. No gimping of the build required (you could swap out my Leadership for Fighting and lose a Luck of the Gambler and still be essentially perma, 120.3 recharge) -- but boy is it expensive! I dig my perma-vengeance though, that is pretty sweet. Sure it requires a corpse, but if you bring along a lowbie who'd rather chat than kill...
If you do that Accuracy calculation for Rockfall from above, you find that I run about (100% base + 42.4% slotted + 81% global) =~ 220% Accuracy on my ST attacks and Tremor. So not even counting in my +To-Hit, I've got a 95% hit rate against +3.5s or so. Once you factor in the always-on +16.6% To-Hit buff I bring myself, I'm at a 95% hit rate on +5.5s. If someone dies and I can cast Vengeance, I'm hitting +7s 95% of the time and still probably have a reasonable hit chance against +8s. Not that I'd be doing any appreciable damage to anything above a +5, but I could hit them. Assuming of course I haven't been to-hit debuffed and the enemy doesn't have any defense buff or debuffs up.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.30
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php
Rockfall: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Stone Melee
Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Stone Fist -- Hectmb-Dam%(A), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(15), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(23)
Level 1: Charged Armor -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(25), HO:Ribo(25)
Level 2: Stone Mallet -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(13), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(13)
Level 4: Heavy Mallet -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(9), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(9)
Level 6: Conductive Shield -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(7), HO:Ribo(7)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Ksmt-ToHit+(40)
Level 10: Static Shield -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(11), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(11), S'fstPrt-ResKB(46)
Level 12: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Heal(17), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(17), Numna-Heal(43), RgnTis-Regen+(43)
Level 18: Seismic Smash -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(31), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(34)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Lightning Reflexes -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Grounded -- Aegis-Psi/Status(A)
Level 26: Fault -- Amaze-Stun/Rchg(A), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(27), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(27), Zinger-Dam%(34), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(39), Amaze-ToHitDeb%(40)
Level 28: Lightning Field -- Armgdn-Dmg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(29), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(29), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Efficacy-EndMod(39)
Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(31)
Level 32: Tremor -- Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(33), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Armgdn-Dam%(34), Zinger-Dam%(40)
Level 35: Power Sink -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(37), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(37)
Level 38: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(46), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(48)
Level 41: Mu Lightning -- Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(42), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Apoc-Dam%(43)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(45), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Ragnrk-Knock%(46), Posi-Dam%(50)
Level 47: Tactics -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(48), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(50), LkGmblr-Def(50)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Fury
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[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]+8.5% DamageBuff[*]+3% Defense(Smashing)[*]+3% Defense(Lethal)[*]+3% Defense(Fire)[*]+3% Defense(Cold)[*]+3% Defense(Energy)[*]+3% Defense(Negative)[*]+3% Defense(Psionic)[*]+3% Defense(Melee)[*]+3% Defense(Ranged)[*]+3% Defense(AoE)[*]+81% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]+92.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]+103.9 (8.63%) HitPoints[*]+Knockback (Mag -4)[*]+MezResist(Confused) (Mag 20%)[*]+MezResist(Held) (Mag 20%)[*]+MezResist(Immobilize) (Mag 26.6%)[*]+MezResist(Sleep) (Mag 20%)[*]+MezResist(Stun) (Mag 20%)[*]+MezResist(Terrorized) (Mag 20%)[*]+23% Recovery[*]+68% Regeneration[*]+10.1% Resistance(Fire)[*]+10.1% Resistance(Cold)[*]+1.26% Resistance(Energy)[*]+1.26% Resistance(Negative)[*]+3% Resistance(Psionic)[/list]
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy & Paste this data chunk into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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2*+$`
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
</pre><hr /> -
Sample Builds
I thought I'd show a couple sample builds, from real live Brutes I have and how I followed, and ignored, the above advice.
The first is a Stone/Fire Brute who's currently level 21. She does quite nicely for herself solo or in a smaller group. I -tend- used to run a lot of the Cap Au Diablo SF with friends (note the Miracle: +recovery in health), which is why there are two Steadfast Protection -KB IOs in this build so early. Or at least she did before the changes, since then she's become a lot less effective at it. Her next power picks are Seismic Smash (curse you Plasma Shield at 16 for blocking it!), Consume, Blazing Aura, then Burn. Slots go into Seismic first, then Blazing Aura, then fill out my shields and Healing Flames. Slotting Blazing Aura and Burn can wait till the 30s.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.30
http://www.honourableunited.org.uk/mhd.php
Level 21 Natural Brute
Primary Power Set: Stone Melee
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Stone Fist -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(3), EndRdx-I(3), EndRdx-I(11)
Level 1: Fire Shield -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), ResDam-I(17)
Level 2: Stone Mallet -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(5), EndRdx-I(5), EndRdx-I(11)
Level 4: Heavy Mallet -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(7), EndRdx-I(7), EndRdx-I(13)
Level 6: Healing Flames -- Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(A), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(9), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Mrcl-Heal(13)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 10: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 12: Fault -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(15), EndRdx-I(15)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Plasma Shield -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), ResDam-I(17)
Level 18: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Heal-I(19), Heal-I(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(21)
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</pre><hr /> -
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Original authorship by Rockfall @ Pinnacle.
I've seen a lot of posts in the Brute forums that seem to be doing some strange things in their builds. This guide is meant to rectify that: to show tricks and techniques for building a good Brute at any level. Much of it is probably applicable to other classes, particularly Tanks and Scrappers. Please note that this guide is aimed at a generalist. The goal of this guide is to get your Brute from 1 to 50 doing a mix of things like most players will end up doing -- contact missions, newspaper missions, mayhems, lackey'ing up, strike forces, solo, duo, small group, large team, all of it.
Low levels (pre-stamina, 1-20)
Face it, life sucks. Until you get stamina and can keep your blue bar from zeroing out you are never going to be a lean, mean, fury building machine. At these levels your fury is your damage source, topping out at +200% damage if you could get to a totally full fury bar, not the pathetic +7% damage you'll get from a Training Origin Enhancement. Slot your attacks, not your shields: they cost more endurance per second than shields do. Do the math if you don't believe me. Slot them with Accuracy and Endurance Reduction as you prefer. I dislike whiffing at enemies, so I'll usually try to slot 2 Accuracy and 2 Endurance Reduction in each attack before moving on to the next one. Slot your smaller attacks first! They are what build your fury, not Seismic Smash or Knockout Blow. Fury is damage, damage is victory.
You'll have picked (or been forced to pick, in the case of your secondary power set) 12 powers by level 20. Of these, 3-4 will go to attacks, 2-3 will go to defenses, 2 will go to a movement, and 3 will go to Stamina. Totaling that up you'll find that's 10 to 12 powers, so there's not likely to be a lot of luxury powers here unless you're XX/Willpower and can ignore the two prerequisite powers on the road to Stamina. Any free power picks are very well spent picking up something listed as "nice" in this bracket or "required" in a later bracket.
Slotting: 4 slots in each single target attack, 2 Accuracy, 2 Endurance Reduction. Next slot any powers noted in green below (hint: all heals). Any remaining slots go nicely in attacks, any other powers from your secondary, or Health. Slots beyond 4 in attacks should be endurance (if you are always needing blue pills) or recharge (if your blue bar is okay).
Attacks: Minimum three attacks, preferably single-target attacks. One fast-cycling attack (your first primary power, Air Superiority, or Boxing) to build fury.
<ul type="square">[*]DM: Siphon Life is neither a great attack, nor a great heal. Useful for top-ups for armor sets with no heal/dull pain.[*]SM: Seismic Smash at 18 if you can, but bump this to 22 rather than bumping Stamina or a mez shield.[*]SS: Rage at 18. Bump Rage to 22 over bumping Stamina to 22 if your defense set requires a power at 16.[/list]Defenses:
<ul type="square">[*]DA: Required: Dark Embrace, Obsidian Shield, Dark Regeneration. Nice: Murky Cloud.[*]EA: Required: Kinetic Shield, Entropy Shield. Nice: Power Shield[*]ElA: Required: Charged Armor, Static Shield. Nice: Conductive Shield[*]FA: Required: Fire Shield, Healing Flames, Plasma Shield.[*]Inv: Required: Resist Physical Damage, Dull Pain, Unyielding. Nice: Temp Invulnerability[*]SA: Required: Rock Armor, Earth's Embrace, Rooted.[*]SD: Required: Deflection, Active Defense. Nice: Battle Agility, True Grit.[*]WP: Required: High Pain Tolerance, Indomitable Will, Rise to the Challenge, Quick Recovery. Nice: Mind Over Body, Fast Healing[/list]Movement:
<ul type="square">[*]Air Superiority, Fly[*]Combat Jumping, Super Jump[*]Hasten, Super Speed[*]Recall Friend or Teleport Foe, Teleport[/list]Pools:
<ul type="square">[*]Fitness: Swift or Hurdle, Health, Stamina (optional for WP, but WP may want it later anyway)[/list]
General comments:
<ul type="square">[*]Skip your damage aura (for now) unless you team a lot. Mathematically the damage per endurance on the auras is fantastic, especially if they are saturated for targets. Too bad that requires you to survive 10 guys beating on you. You can pick it up with a spare power slot if you like, just to have it. Works great for keeping aggro on you if you do team though.[*]Similarly, skip your primary's damage AoE (for now) unless you team a lot.[*]FA's Consume and DM's Dark Consumption are nice, Stamina is better. Stamina first, the other power second.[*]You can put off the movement power with the AP/KR mayhem temp travel powers, but a real travel power is simply much better.[*]The base empowerment buffs are really sweet at these levels. Particularly, Increase Recovery, Increase Run/Jump, and Increase Attack Speed. They last for an hour (the text in-game that says 15 minutes is wrong) and persist even through death. If you already have an established character who can fund your use of these I can't recommend them enough. Storage of them is unfortunately highly limited due to the elimination of base salvage.[/list]
Mid levels (post-stamina, 20-30)
You now have stamina. You slot it (twice) at 21 and drop in IOs (or SOs at 22). This is a life altering event for a Brute: you can now probably finish a mission without resting five times. Enemies are going to start scaling up though. You're going to see more damage and in particular much more exotic (Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative) damage coming your way. Start slotting up your shields and drop resistance or defense in them. Don't worry as much about endurance reduction in the until you've got everything else slotted up, or if you're having major endurance problems still (Stone/Ela I'm looking at you!). As attacks need less than two accuracy and two endurance reductions, start slotting some damage or recharge reduction into them. Better yet, use cheap set IOs to "over enhance" a power -- any IO that improves multiple-aspects does more total improvement than a single-aspect IO.
Attacks: Start diversifying. Add an AoE control, or a mez attack for mitigation.
<ul type="square">[*]DB: Required: Combos![*]DM: Required: Soul Drain. Nice: Dark Consumption.[*]EM: Required: Total Focus[*]ElM: Nice: Chain Induction (debatable)[*]FM: Nice: Fire Breath, Fire Sword Circle[*]SM: Required: Seismic Smash (if you missed it), Fault[*]SS: Required: Rage (if you missed it)[/list]Defenses: Your taunt/damage aura is a good pick in this rage for any secondary you have.
<ul type="square">[*]DA: Required: Murky Cloud. Nice: Cloak of Darkness, Cloak of Fear OR Death Shroud (not both).[*]EA: Required: Power Shield, Energy Drain. Nice: Energy Cloak.[*]ElA: Required: Conductive Shield, Grounded. Nice: Lightning Reflexes, Conserve Power (handy until you get Power Sink)[*]FA: Required: Consume. Nice: Burn (requires someone to immobilize the enemy, you w/knockdown or a friend with massive slows/AoE immobilize).[*]Inv: Required: Invincibility, Temp Invulnerability. Nice: Resist Energies, Resist Elements.[*]SA: Required: Brimstone Armor, Crystal Armor. Nice: Stone Skin.[*]SD: Required: Battle Agility, True Grit. Nice: Against All Odds. If you team: Phalanx Fighting, Grant Cover[*]WP: Required: Mind Over Body, Heightened Senses. Nice: Fast Healing[/list]Pools:
<ul type="square">[*]Fighting: Nice for adding smashing/lethal resist and stacking defense (EA/Inv/SA/WP).[*]Medicine: If you lack a heal this can be nice to reduce downtime (EA/ElA).[*]Leadership: Maneuvers/Tactics is unconventional, but handy if you team, particularly if your team tends to be higher or lower level than you are.[*]Concealment: Handy for slotting Luck of the Gambler: +7.5% recharge IOs or stacking defense.[/list]
If you can get a cheap Numina's Convalescence: +regeneration/+recovery or Miracle: +recovery, both IOs rock a Brute's world. FA and ElA are well served by a Steadfast Protection: -knockback IO. Defense using sets (EA/Inv/SA/SD/WP) should certainly start watching for the Steadfast Protection: +3% def/resistance IO and look for a resistance power to slot it in.
High levels (30-40)
Psi. Just when things are really getting great you start seeing a lot more Psi damage and Energy drain. Smart player tactics can help this -- as can good powers. A stealth IO will help you get the first shot off against dangerous enemies -- hopefully killing them outright or at least mezzing them to put them out of the fight while you do kill them. Run/Jump +stealth IOs slot into sprint nicely, so you can use them when in combat or during overland travel.
Attacks: Everyone wants their tier-9 attack. Slot it up and go crazy.
Defenses: Should be mostly complete by now. Take your tier-9 if you swing that way. Take and slot your aura if you for some reason haven't.
<ul type="square">[*]ElA: Required: Power Sink. Slot it as utility (few slots, end or recharge as you like) or as an offense/defense (6 slots, 2-3 recharge and 3-4 end mod) and make like a sapper.[/list]Pools:
<ul type="square">[*]Speed: If you're going for a "perma" type build, get your hasten and slot it. Start searching for the Luck of the Gambler: +recharge's and purple sets you'll need.[/list]
End game (40-50)
Your patron is not your enemy, particularly given the patron pool changes. Yes people will debate if our patron pools are better worse than hero epic pools on the boards all day long. In the end, our patron pools are what we have. May as well make the best of it. Speaking of the best of it, do you know how many FA/Burn Tanks (or Scrappers) would kill to have an AoE immobilize in any of their epic pools?
Generally throughout my career as a Brute I find that I'm lacking slots more than lacking powers or survivability, but that's part of building as a generalist -- there are fairly few truly bad powers for you, and you'd like to slot everything you take at least a little so you can use it when needed.
I have no must-have powers to talk about here. Take whatever you feel you're missing. Patron powers are good. Any of the pools listed in the 20-30 section are good, each from their own angle. Taunt won't kill you, but I've not felt lacking for not having it.
Particular comments:
<ul type="square">[*]FA's take your patron immobilize (at 41 or 44) and Burn (before 41) and have a nice XP-filled cookout. Go make FA Tanks cry by having Rikti-roasts in the RWZ.[*]ElA's should strongly consider Scirocco for his -recovery/-end attacks to stack with Power Sink/Lightning Field.[*]PvPers love Black Scorpion for his Web Grenade. I don't PvP much in CoX, so that's up to you.[/list]
Final Slotting Advice:
Keep in mind that these are "starting points". I'm not saying you can't 6-slot your melee attacks -- just don't blindly 6-slot Crushing Impact in them. 5x CI and a proc is great, or the 4x Mako + misc + proc.
<ul type="square">[*]Melee (+recharge): 5x CI, skip the Acc/Dam -- low endurance use primaries may optionally skip Dam/End instead. http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics (required reading if you don't agree with the above):
[ QUOTE ]
HitChance = Clamp( AccMods × Clamp( BaseHitChance + ToHitMods DefMods ) )
[/ QUOTE ]
AccMods in this setup, with 4 sets of CI slotted is 42.4% + 4x(7% accuracy set bonus) = 70.4%, on top of a base ~100% accuracy gives you 170.4% (AccMods). That's ignoring any global accuracy bonuses from other sets. Your final HitChance is capped at 95% anyway (that's what Clamp() does), so with that AccMod you'll be hitting as best you can against things where your (BaseHitChance + ToHitMods DefMods) = 95/170.4 = 55.75%. That's your default BaseHitChance on a +2 critter (minion/lt/boss class is irrelevant). If you added the Acc/Dam for a 6-slot CI, that's (..math..) = 48.24% which is about a +3. That's nice and all, but a Kismet: +"Accuracy" (To-Hit) Unique is +6% To-Hit -- so that's like (+6% ToHitMods) and is almost the difference between a +2 and +3. As a bonus, it only costs you one slot versus 4.
If you still want to hit more, consider SS for Rage (+30% ToHitMods when single-stacked and slotted) or Build-Up (as Rage, but not perma nor stackable) or even Leadership/Tactics (+10% ToHitMods when slotted). There are some nice set bonuses in the To-Hit Sets for a Brute. Yes, you could combine all of these and be able to hit +5 enemies nearly all the time but that's not the general case and you'll do a pittance of damage anyway, so who cares if you hit? If you ever head for purple sets you'll be hitting +5s all the time anyway, so the Acc/Dam still ends up being a waste.
The deluxe version for a single power is of course 5x Hecatomb, skipping the pure Damage set piece.
[*]Melee (non +recharge): 4x Mako's (Acc/Dam/End/Rech, Acc/End/Rech, Dam/Rech, Dam/End) + 1x any-other-(set)triple of Acc/Dam/End/Rech
If you just don't care about +recharge set bonuses, do Mako's Bite instead and pick up a nice little 4x(+3% damage bonus). That's 12% of damage, which is equal to 6 points of Fury, plus some HP, which is great for the heavy regeneration sets: SA/WP. You could do 5x Mako, but the set bonus is pretty ~meh~. 6x Mako would be very viable if you wanted the range defense.
[*]PBAoE damage toggle: 4x Multi-Strike (Dam/End/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Dam/Rech, Dam/End) + 2 "utility" (End Mod, Slow, To-Hit Debuff, Taunt IO, Damage Procs)
Avoid the Taunt Sets here: the devs have stated that the ability to slot taunt sets in your {taunt} aura is going to be removed. This looks like a poor design/code limitation problem on their end -- procs are firing against the Brute running the power. Oops. There is also Scirocco's Dervish, but most of the Auras have a secondary component that could use some love, and the two triple-aspect IOs in Multi Strike helps free up slots for them.
For the deluxe version, if you can find a Armageddon: Damage purple, it plus two pieces of Scirocco's Dervish (Acc/Dam/End, Dam/End) can ED-cap your damage, leaving you with three slots to put "utility" set bits in.
[*]PBAoE attacks: 3x Multi-Strike (Dam/End/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Dam/Rech) + 3x Scirocco's Dervish (Dam/Rech, Acc/Rech, Chance for Energy)
This set maximizes recharge and damage, and maintains good numbers for accuracy and endurance reduction. You can push for more Acc/Dam/End with that piece of Scirocco's if you prefer. Adds some nice resistance buffs too. The full Scirocco's is also a nice path to take for the next three global bonuses, but you sacrifice a lot of recharge to do so.
The deluxe version is Armageddon, skipping the pure Damage IO. If you still want to 6-slot it, the Perfect Zinger: Chance for Psi proc is pretty nice as it does just as much damage as any other proc, but is generally less resisted.
[*]Resist: 3x Ribo's (or 2x Ribo's + Steadfast Def%/Res, Steadfast -KB if you are ElA/FA)
You can use Ageis for some +defense or Titanium Coating for +HP if you wanted, but it is hard to beat really low endurance cost shields that are ED resist capped. You can also mix in any other unique set piece and a resistance (or res/end) of that same set for a tiny set bonus like the 2x Steadfast for ElA/FA. The defense for the Steadfast trick is best when stacked of course and ElA/FA aren't heavy-defense sets, but every little bit helps even if it doesn't help "as much" as it would someone already at 40% overall defense.
You will lose a touch of resist on the 2x/2x route, so I like sticking that in Tough rather than one of my primary shields. It'd also be fine in a "lesser" power, such as a passive res shield.
[*]Defense: 3x Cito's or 3x or 4x Luck of the Gambler (Recharge Speed/Def, Def/End, Def, plus optionally Def/End/Rech)
Are you rich and going for +recharge or not? Red Fortune isn't a bad alternative with the set bonuses there but begs for more slots for the +rech and +def(ranged), and those slots can be hard to come by and you often end up enhancing a useless aspect of a shield, like recharge.[/list]
Bad Powers
Some powers just suck. I know others will disagree with things on this list; they'll find odd uses for them, like Temperature Protection as a place to stick a -KB IO without paying an extra slot for it. That's fine, if you have a good reason more power to you. Just don't take junk like this when there are more important things to be taking first: Tough/Weave, Aid Self, Stamina, another attack, or such.
<ul type="square">[*]Taunt: Most brutes don't need it. You get more AoE and ST damage capability than Tanks do, and thus can hold aggro better through your damage alone.[*]ElM's Lightning Clap, SS's Hand Clap: KnockBACK. It sucks. Mobs leave your aura, nobody else's AoEs are hitting all of them. Pass, unless you've got a way to mitigate it or you know how to carefully control it.[*]SM's Hurl Boulder, SS's Hurl: Aptly named -- the long animation and single target nature of these leave them lacking and may remind you of vomit. The -Fly they apply can be nice, so it might be a useful tool sometimes, but who wants to stand there for almost 4 seconds to apply a -Fly to a Longbow Eagle who's now flown 200 yards or more away? Oh and it does knockback. Make that 215 yards away. Animations improved since I originally wrote this, but still less good than a patron blast IMO.[*]Self-Rez: If you died, you did something wrong earlier. Use this time on the ground to think about what it was so you can avoid it in the future.[*]FA's Temperature Protection: Weak fire/cold resistance. Take it if you want to, but take it late. There are far more useful powers to you pre-30. Yes they added, what, slow resistance? It still sucks, it just isn't automatically the worst power in the game.[/list] -
That anatomy of an attack sequence makes perfect sense from the age-old Nettrek originated quote (I think?): "Don't trust the client; it is in the hands of the enemy!"
Back when I was writing combat systems for MUSHes, I'd implemented something similar, though not quite that convoluted.
I have to wonder just a little bit, if MMOs might do well with a model that doesn't hide the numbers part of the game engine. A MMO engine can't be more complex than something like the Linux or BSD kernels. Leave the producing companies to design the numbers on powersets and the art and stories that make up the game.