Rylas

My DM/EA has a different experience. Granted, having a particular primaries can change a lot of the performance, but that's true about any set. Any primary with a KD power will already be of great use to /EA. Also, knowing how to play the set to it's strengths help.

Lets keep in mind that there is the "cottage rule" to follow. So you're not going to be able to change powers in the set completely. My suggestion keeps this in mind while providing additional mitigation in -end. You're welcome to make your own suggestions. I'll certainly hear them out more than you're willing to. As for the issues you've listed:

1. It does have more than just defense. It provides a heal, and has -end. Utilize them, they really do help. Also, EA can excel at defense. Three slot for defense on your toggles and CJ + Weave. This puts S/L at 34%, F/C at 36%, Eng at 39% and Neg at 30%. Hardly bad numbers for a brute. You may not want to take pool powers, but that's your choice. With inherent fitness, there's even less reason not to take those powers.

2 and 3. Utilities aren't very abundant in many sets. I wasn't aware it was the requirement for armor sets to supply them. It has more than some sets though, so I guess that should be enough. Also, while redundant, these utilities do offer a boost to sustained offensive output. You may consider the only worthy boost to be damage or recharge, but being able to continue fighting non-stop seems like a pretty good boost to me. I use it quite well to keep fury from dropping.

Yes, SOs are the balance. But it should be noted that to soft-cap /EA to the 6 damage types requires minimal slot investment, which actually gives it quite an advantage. Heavy investment is not required. Even so, it does stand on its own merits if you choose to play up its strengths and use the forms of mitigation it offers. Choosing a more "synergetic" primary will only boost that performance (which is true for all armor sets).

Now, instead of just digging your heals into the ground and whining about the set, how about breaking out some numbers, making some constructive criticism and putting out some useful suggestions that the devs will be willing to take under consideration. If the set is as unplayable as you say, and you really want to see it "fixed," then that's what you need to do.

When I solo'd Battle Maiden (just the normal Battle Maiden, mind you) I was glad to have an endurance recovery in /DM. You may want to make sure you have enough end reduction and recovery to last for the battle. My fight with her took a little over 20 minutes (twice I had to find more Soul Drain fodder).

Je-saist sais pas.

The is at least the second time I've seen you assert that a tank cannot be built to solo an AV, and then corrected afterwards. It is indeed possible. Shield/DM IOd for soft-cap and recharge can sustain the DPS needed to solo an AV. Without any extra support from temp pets.

Seriously, cut out the stubborn vendetta you seem to have with AV killing tanks.

I consider it a pretty good powerset already. Decent defense, 50% heal (and full recovery) every 30 seconds (not hard to get a group around you), some DDR and good endurance management. I can make that work. Throw in IOs, and you can do a lot with it.

Put tanker numbers behind it, and it's a very solid set.

Obviously, YMMV.

I would agree with this. I have a DM/EA brute softcapped to all but Psi. The two sets really compliment each other, so maybe my view is a little skewed, but I found EA to be pretty solid (before I started IOing). At least for brute numbers.

Now, the only problem with making it accessible for hero ATs, is that for tankers, you have two problem powers. Energy Cloak and Conserve Power. You also have the lack of an important power, a Taunt Aura.

EC is a stealth, which is not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose. After all, DA has it's cloak on tanks as well. But without a taunt aura, this could be a problem.

CP is a repeat power from an Epic pool. So it would have to be replaced.

My solution: Change Conserve Power into something akin to the Elec Control power Conductive Aura. Only instead of +regen/+recov for the user, it's an endurance discount per foe in range. You get a 5% discount for up to 10 foes in range. The power gives the exact same effect as before, but now adds a benefit that makes it viable for tankers.

I see plenty of Controllers and Doms playing on ITFs. The experienced ones don't complain when they're primary is negated by groups of Cim's. Why do you get to be different?

Do like they did and evolve. God knows your complaints could use the rest. 1Learn to kite, 2learn to get past that which doesn't work with your preference of tanking and 3be a better tanker. I see too many people talking about how they've gotten around it to see any justification for your crying.

If I can read properly? Who's being insulting now?

Yeah, you tried to say "in the context of changing powers" enhancements are small. You'd be wrong. Considering by changing IOs you can greatly increase the survival or damage abilities of your character, they are no longer little even compared to the "thematic" argument you want to use. You're thematic hide-behinds aren't taking game balance into consideration. And thematically speaking, it's not a stretch to say your powers have changed due to a mutation. Especially when your powersets still stay the same.

And if you can read properly, you'll notice my first response gave a very clear answer to what could happen if your suggestion was implemented. Yet you don't even bother acknowledging it. Instead, you call everyone here a fan boy for the devs. Excellent argument.

There is great irony in you calling everyone else a brick wall.

*edited for horrible typos.

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Hmm... ok, I'll /sign that.

You've seen a majority!? Get them posting on the forums NAO!!!

If the enhancements are such a little thing, why are you so insistent about them? Probably because you know they aren't so little. IOs are a pretty BFD.

In this case, it's not the devs that need to learn or move on.

Negative, Ghost Rider. If a lot of people are complaining, its just that. A lot of people complaining. Being vocal doesn't make you "in-the-right". Nor does having a few people agree. You need to come up with a better argument than that.

I'm glad you're at least trying to play nice. But with such opposing view points on something like this, both sides can't be right.

Well, it's not like the devs we're arbitrarily making this decision. In fact, I'm sure they asked those questions. Just because you can't come up with a bad outcome, doesn't mean others can't.

This game is designed to be a time sink. This is done for 2 reasons: Making money from subscriptions and giving the player the sense of making progress and having fun. Imagine if you could keep all your enhancements from a respec. What's to stop you from putting all those enhancements in your next character? And the one after that? And then after that? You'd spend less time on your character. You'd have less "work" to do to make it into what you want. Eventually, with no challenge left in the game of making a character that's "tweaked out," you'd have less incentive to play. Now, imagine that for most of the player base. It allows for a system that would be too easy to abuse.

Also, make a second build. Then you can be even more versatile.

First and foremost, my apologies. I misread you're post (my eye put one word in for another), and responded to that. I certainly don't mean to misrepresent you.

That being said-

But you did say:

I would argue many set combos can be. And it's possible, in all of those situations, to fulfill the aggro magnet role at the same time. If a tanker isn't doing what he can to soak aggro, then it's a playstyle choice (rarely a build issue).

I agree with most all your other comments in the thread (especially staying away from god-mode powers with crashes). But when you say: "Boosting their weakness is much more difficult and usually comes at the expense of their strength," I think this ends up being a little misleading. It's not usually that difficult, and it doesn't have to cost them their survival. If inf cost is what you're hinging this on, all someone has to do is utilize guides on the market forums, and Hero Merits. Most bonuses that can help your damage output don't even cost that much (in inf or towards survival).

To the OP:

Yes, Granite Tanks are the "kings" of meat-shielding. But that's about all you'll do if all you want to do is run in Granite form. Aside from having a lot of recharge bonuses and Super Strength to put your tank back on track for doing normal damage, Granite won't offer much outside of taking hits for the team. That's a good role to fill, but its something to take into account. Also, your build is for /stone, so your damage will be crap.

If you're going to compare IO builds, you may consider one that allows you to run around outside of Granite with S/L/E/N and Psi Defense at the cap. It's not too difficult to do, and you always have Granite to fall on when times get tough. You'll be much more versatile this way.

Invul/ is a great set. It's easy to soft cap defense (to all by psi) when making an IO build and utilizing Invincibility. You won't have a -dmg to worry about, but at the same time, if anyone shreds your defense with debuffs or has high to-hit, you won't have a lot of resist to lean on outside of S/L. When times get tough, you have Unstoppable, but when that crashes, you're SOL if you didn't finish the job. Then you're useless to your team. It's best to learn playstyles for those situations that you may be exposed to Psi.

IO suggestions for Invul/: get your S/L/E/N/F/C defense to where you can soft-cap with 1 foe in range. Then add on +HP bonuses. They'll work as additional resistance. After that, add recharge. You should be pretty darn solid from there.

*When I said your /stone build would have crap damage, I meant while in Granite. In my example, /SS has Rage to help overcome the -dmg penalty. /Stone doesn't offer anything to help, hence my comment. /Stone is a fine set.

It's funny, you want to cherry pick tanker builds to say they don't deliver decent DPS, but then place defenders above them since some of them can buff/debuff.

Part of what you say is true: you can gimp one thing if you've planned poorly or don't understand the mechanics of your game. But I've made plenty of tanks on plenty of primary/secondary combos that increased their damage output without taking away from their survival. In many cases, I've increased both. One of my tanks even solo'd an AV. That's serious DPS to sustain. Also, I've seen plenty of soft-capped-to-ranged blasters that do just fine on damage output.

Please note, I'm not saying that tanks will do brute/scrapper levels of damage, but they will do GOOD damage. Sometimes even great. Discouraging to go for those isn't helpful. Encouraging to not ignore other important things is.

Genius. I must find a higher resolution of this.

You consider lower level IOs more valuable. Others do not. Don't get me wrong, I prefer IOs that are in the level 35ish range, because I don't exemplar below 40 that often. In fact, I hardly exemplar at all. Some people never exemplar, and the enhancement values of level 50 IOs are more valuable to them.

Head to the market, and you'll see the highest level IOs of any set are, more often than not, selling for more. Procs and Uniques are generally the exception to the rule. So, to change anything you're talking about would mainly serve your purpose more so than that of the gaming majority.

Eisregen beat me to it. The prevention of something isn't the same as the killing of something. If you spay or neuter your dog, you're not killing puppies. I'd say the example of reincarnation your talking about avoids any "moral inequities."

I've decided to keep may rants on Smallville antics to a minimum. Mainly because a lot of people here just don't want to hear it, and don't believe you can expect a show to stay as good as when it started. So I just point out the completely obvious holes that even they can't fan wank.

But yeah, the concept for having a device like that in the first place don't make sense. At all. Even on this show.

And a thank you to _23X_ as well!!