Sarrate

Ah! You already took the fire dot ticks into account. Sorry, didn't mean to point out something you already knew - I just know it's been a trouble area in the past.

I also understand your reason about the finer details.

If you're looking to soft-cap WP (hopefully without skimping on +maxHP!), then the result will most likely die very, very rarely. As such, Resurgence would be a fairly wasted choice since you should never need it. I'm saying this as a self rez hater, I just can't justify taking a power I'd never use. (It would have been great for my character concept.)

I think Fighting is one of the best investments a WP Tank can make - IOs or not. The difference between having it and not is night and day. I noticed a significant improvement with just Tough, before Weave. Again, if you're aiming for the softcap, you'll want extra +def, and Weave is one of the best places to get it (+5% to all base, +7.8% slotted).

I'm going to list some of the sets I remember using to get extra def on my WP/Fire, many of which you should be able to use as well. (I'm not taking cost into consideration for these, I'm out of touch with current prices.)

* ALL: Steadfast (res, unique), Gladiator's ___** (res, unique)
* S/L def: Kinetic Combat (Melee, 4 slots), Reactive Armor (Res, 3/4 slots), Retified Reticle (ToHit, 2 slots), Mocking Beratement (Taunt, 4/6 slots), Perfect Zinger (Taunt, 4/6 slots)
* E/NE def: Erradication (PBAoE, 3/4 slots), Reactive Armor (Res, 3/4 slots), Blessing of the Zypher*** (Universal Travel, 2 slots)
* F/C def: Aegis (Res, 3 slots)


** This is in my planned build, but is stupidly expensive. The main reason I haven't bit the bullet and made an effort to buy it is I'm not sure if (how?) builds will change in GR. The last thing I want to do is blow 2 billion, only to have it invalidated.

*** Blessing of the Zypher yields positional def, but it only takes one extra slot for ~1.56, it's not a bad pick at all.

Sorry, I'm blanking a bit on F/C def, but I seem to remember it wasn't too hard to get. (I think it was a bonus for one of the Taunt sets, but I don't remember which.) There is a nice window set bonus finder in MIDs, too. (Window -> Set Bonus Finder, I think..)


The process I normally go through when making builds is to take the primary focus of the build, and plug in the essentials (in this case, Steadfast, KC, Erradication, Reactive Armor / Aegis), then fill in the blanks with your secondary goals in mind. After that, refine, refine, refine. (Refining includes asking for second opinions, too.)

Even if you don't push all the way to the soft cap, if you're in the 40% range, I consider that pretty much golden. (RttC does have a minor tohit debuff, that will help close the gap a bit for normal enemies, too.) Personally, I sit at 39% s/l and 42% e/ne/f/c (planned build is 42% s/l, 45% e/ne/f/c); between that and ~3168 hp and ~715% regen (1 target), survivability is not an issue in the slightest.

Hope this helps!

Just out of curiousity, how did you compute the dps of that chain? There are a couple reasons why I ask:

* Redraw - Whenever you need to redraw your claws (twice per chain) you'll need to add extra time to the chain. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone knows the activation time of the redraw effect, so we can't accurately account for it.

* The average damage of the dot is generally miscalculated. Most times, people average it out to TotalDotDamage * Chance. So, damage * 0.8 in this case. It's more complicated than that because each tick needs to roll a check to see if it continues.

Put those two together, and it means dealing less damage over a longer period of time.

Minute nit pick - the soft cap is 45%, the hard cap is much higher. It's called the soft cap because it is the point where extra defense stops helping you against normal mobs. If you face enemies with either tohit buffs or significant defense debuffs, then any defense over 45% will still help you.

Sorry for the recap if you already knew that, but it leads into the next bit...

This isn't the case (it never was, even before I13) since players are far more likely to have tohit buffs than mobs. Build Up, Aim, Focused Accuracy, Rage, a Kismet, yellow inspirations; all these things would break the 45% soft cap. When fighting players, I'd consider more defense to always be better.

As Kosmos points out, however, there is very harsh diminishing returns in PvP now, so after a certain point getting a meaningful amount more defense is extremely hard to do.

I'm 99% certain that damage procs scale with character level - so they deal less damage at lvl30 than they would at lvl50 even using the same slotted IO.

(Note: Procs still work even when exemplared past 3 levels below the enhancement, so long as you have the power. So this would be be pretty easy to test.)


[edit; Also, I hate the mechanics of random rolls. lvl50 IOs are essentially useless to me.]

Something to keep in mind, that group makeup will have a significant influence on which tactics you'll want to employ, and how successful they are. Some things to be aware of:

• Statesman Task Force
  
• Dr. Aeon - Hits hard (smashing/energy) and summons ~7 adds. If you defeat the adds, Aeon will just summon more, so make sure the group just focuses on killing Aeon. He also has an shield that will make him immune to everything. The power from the Thorn Tree drops the shield. My suggestion is to jump next to Aeon and Taunt. After he does the MoG animation and summons his minions, then hit him with the temp power. If you hit him with the temp before he puts the shield up, it will have no effect. (I failed an MSTF once because I decided to use the temp power then Taunt. Result was I blew the temp power's cooldown, taunted him while he was immune, and he ate half the team. Sadness.)
  
• Black Scorpion - The least meddling of all the Patrons. He only has two powers worthy of note (both broken). First, he has Rage which allows him to hit through the softcap. It's broken because he will not recast it if he's being hit freqently enough (on a team, this isn't hard to do). He also has Taunt, but as far as I can tell it does nothing to PCs. Tank and spank.
  
• Mako - Also not terribly threatening to Tanks, but he is a bit slippery.
  • Notable powers:
  • Placate - This will prevent you from being able to target him. Keep him Taunted and use AoEs if this lands. Usually not a big deal, but good to know he has it.
  • Elude - This has a 30s duration and 75s rech, or down for 45s after it drops. Tohit buffs are helpful for killing him through this, but not a requirement if your team has high enough dps to make headway while it's down.
  • Bellow - PB AoE nuke (energy) when he gets to low health.
• Scirocco - Easily the second most dangerous patron. Exotic damage, debuffs, aoes, he has it all. Thankfully, unlike other Patrons, he doesn't have any major defensive abilities, so he is a pretty quick kill. Still, while he is alive, treat him with caution.
  • Notable powers:
  • EM PUlse - Large PBAoE damage, hold, end drain, and regen debuff (2000% base, ~2880% from the purple patch). This is dangerous to both you and your team. I strongly suggest you keep your energy defense up to avoid it, and your team stays as far away as possible.
  • Dust Devils - The are basically personalized Tornadoes. They deal damage, debuff def, and are autohit. I strongly suggest you monitor your defense and be ready to pop purples when he summons these - especially if you're relying on def while Tanking (such as your Invuln or buffed by Colds/FF/etc on the Fire).
  • Misc AoEs/Cones - Aside from EM Pulse, he also has Desert Wind and Static Discharge, both fairly sizable cones. While you'll be hit by them anyways, make sure you point him away from the team. Worst thing that can happen is a team mate gets hit by EM Pulse (hold) then slammed by one of these two.
• Ghost Widow - Aside from her hold, she really isn't a threat by herself. She is more of a control (messing up your rythm) / hard to kill AV.
  • Notable powers:
  • Soul Storm - This is a MAG100 (not a typo) aoe hold that deals significant damage. It can one shot a Tank without +hp (or outside res buffs / dmg debuffs). The main thing you should do to combat this is keep your def softcapped at 45% to lower the chance of it hitting. (Others in melee range should do the same.) If you have a teammate that can give you status protection (Emp\CM, Therm\Thaw, Kin\ID, Sonic\Clarity), have them stack it until you have >MAG100 hold protection. You can beat her without it, but it's very nice to have. (I wouldn't bother with breakfrees. It would take roughly half an insp tray to break it once. The space would be much better served with purples.)
  • Dark Regen - PBAoE heal that gives her more health per target hit. Again, the best solution is just to sit at the neg energy soft cap and prevent it from hitting. (Same goes for all characters in melee range.) If meleers have that much defense, they do not need to be afraid of being in melee from her heal.
  • Black Hole - This is a cage power. If it hits you, you'll have 30s of being unable to do anything. For this reason, I suggest you Taunt early and often. You can keep her attention through it, but you do have to work at it. Again, best way to avoid this is 45% neg en def. (Breakfrees do not work.)
  • Fearsome Stare - This is a cone fear power. The main reason I list it is so you know that a breakfree or two may not be a bad idea to get around this power. It is a cone, so keep GW pointed away from your allies. (This is good practice for any AV, though!)
• Lord Recluse - The big man himself. I'll split this into two section, Towers and Powers.
  • Towers
  • Red Tower - +100% dmg, +100% smash/lethal/energy res (Recluse is immune to that damage while it's up), +knockback. This is generally the first candidate for being dropped. One of his melee attack will deal ~5800 damage before resists while it is up. Unless you have a special team makeup, you won't deal much damage while it's up either. Try to have a good chunk of res to s/l while it's up; 70%+ is the target preferable. (Energy is nice too, but Recluse is mostly s/l in melee range.)
  • Blue Tower - +30% tohit, +recharge (capped), +runspeed. While this tower is up, you'll need 75% def to keep him floored. If you cannot hit 70%+ res, get 75% def first. This is the most easily skipped tower, but don't be shy of taking it down until you're comfortable with the encounter. If you do skip taking it down, his "purple dawn" will be far more intense.
  • Orange/Yellow Tower - +200% def, +status protection. Basically, trying to hit him while this tower is up is a pretty pointless effort. Just use Taunt. :P
  • Green Tower - +maxhp (to the cap), +regen (capped), periodic heal. Pretty much another purely defensive tower. You must destroy it to kill him.
  • Notable powers
  • Summon Bane Spiders - Recluse will periodically summon a lvl54 Bane boss to help him. Like with Black Scorpion, his AI can be bugged if you have an effect hitting him frequenly enough. Have a defender/controller drop an anchored debuff on him (Rad Infection, Snow Storm, etc), and he'll pretty much never summon.
  • Channel Gun - This is his long range (110 ft/yard? forgot the unit of measurement used) attack. It is one of his few energy attacks, and it comes with an extremely nasty end drain/recovery (200% base, ~288% post purple patch) debuff. He can shoot this very fast (4s base rech, ~0.8s with the Blue Tower up), so it will eventually hit you. Whether you'd rather deal with Recluse's melee damage or try to range him is up to you. (Imo, Invuln would work better in melee, Fire you may want to experiment with.)
  • Slice / Arm Lash - Attacks where Recluse uses his spider legs. They deal lethal/toxic damage and debuff defense. Be sure to be monitoring your defense and be ready to eat additional purples to compensate for this.
  • Energy Punch (Jab animation) - This isn't a terribly scary attack, but keep in mind it does apply a fairly long lasting stun. If it lands four times in a row, it will break Tanker status protection. (If you see the icons stacking, soft cap to 75% if the Blue Tower is up, 45% if down to prevent it from stacking 4 times).
  • Summon Army - This is the "purple dawn" I alluded to. At around 25% health, he will start to spawn waves upon waves of Banes. The best thing to do for this is to drag Recluse to a corner (pointed away from the team) and use your AoEs. Also, teammates with repel/knockdown/knockback effects should use them to keep the banes bunched up in the corner during the last 25%.
  
  What I do (WP Tank) during the fight is to jump over Recluse's head while Taunting, then run behind one of his pillars. He'll be out of LOS and run to melee. (Another benefit of this is teammates can give you inspirations from the other side of a pillar while being safe from Recluse's AoEs.) I put Taunt on auto while monitoring my defense / managing inspirations. When the last tower is getting low on life, I pull him to the corner for the kill.

Hmm, I think that's just about everything, but it's likely I missed something while working on this post on and off for a couple hours between tasks at work.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

It looks like it works similar to Cloak of Darkness:
Power Surge
So it makes you transparent for 179s [edit: with the PS graphic / particle effect / etc being overlayed where your charater is], then you go back to seeing your character. There is also no mention of setting costumes like you see for Granite:

Hah! I remember that! I also remember that it didn't work quite right. I have an old old demofile of my Fire Tank tanking Babbage and constantly getting detoggled, despite the fact Burn patches were on the ground. Just a guess, but I'm thinking Burn's status protection wasn't set to self stack, so there would be a split second right after dropping a patch that would leave Fire Tanks without status protection.

This is a documented problem and the entire reason why Clear Mind's +status protection is set to self stack, so reapplying it doesn't cause toggle drops on allies. I do think there is an easy way around it. Have CM apply a short stacking +status protection buff, then flag the 90s +status protection to apply on a slight delay and be unstackable. So, visually instead of looking like this:

Err, sorry for the sidetrack...
(Also, the [code] tag is annoying. Copy & Paste the above into Notepad if it's all misaligned.)

I don't completely agree with this. I don't have a problem with Scrappers having the ability to pull limited aggro off Tankers if they're actively trying to and/or the Tanker isn't. For example, an AoE Scrapper primary (Spines, Elec, etc) holding aggro off a primarily single target Tanker secondary (EM, DM, etc). Likewise, I have no problems with a Scrapper who uses Confront to hold an boss's aggro instead of a Tanker who isn't using Taunt.

The way things are setup now, however, the Tanker has to put in double time effort (using all their tools) to hold aggro off Shield/Invuln Scrappers building threat passively. I don't think that's desirable at all.


Brutes exasperbates this even further by having equal threat mod, 5 target Taunt (with duration matching Tankers), and more damage.

Or Ea and Ninjitsu (if you're counting non-Tanker sets).

Keep in mind, that the worst case scenario for a Tank with no defense (Fiery Armor, Elec Armor, etc) is taking slightly less than double damage. Against any enemy higher than an even con minion, the impact is less than that.

If you're curious how much -def is necessary to force enemies to hit 95% of the time:


Now, to put that into perspective, if you have a set like Shield sitting at 45% def, then dropping from just 5% from 45% to 40% is a 100% increase in damage taken.


Imo, the biggest disadvantage to not having def resistance is the fact that any additional defense added to the set (from pools, buffs, IOs, etc) are much more easily stripped from these sets. That, and the main way to increase a resist based set's survivability is to add defense to it (since adding meaningful resistance is hard/pointless to do).

It also resists damage debuffs of the same type. (Smashing res resists smashing damage debuffs, for example.)

Tanker and Scrapper AAO have the same duration. Likewise, Invincibility and RttC have identical durations between the two ATs. Just like Invincibility, AAO is 25% stronger than normal auras (16.875s vs 13.5s). Compound that with the fact it pulses relatively fast (1s) compared to damage auras (2s) and the Scrappers deal considerably more damage than Tanks, and everything makes sense as to why they're incredibly hard to hold aggro over. (It can be done, esp if you get in first, but it's definitely something you have to constantly work at.)

This is just my personal opinion, but I find it to be fun at times - I consider it to be a challenge. It forces me to play better / smarter by doing it and makes me a better player because of it. I'm not saying you should have the same view, mind you, just sharing my point of view. (Also, I think forcing them to deal less damage to be kind of a shame.)

Having said all that, I don't think they should have auras as strong as they are. Even at 3/4 or even 1/2 the current duration, they'd be plenty strong to keep mobs stuck to them against other players. (Likewise from Brutes' auras, Taunt, and 'Gauntlet-lite.') The rub for me isn't that there is a challenge or anything, it's that all other things being equal (identical slotting, playstyle, etc), Tankers have a disadvantage when it comes to taunting, as you saw first hand.

When Castle made the post explaining how taunt effects really work, he said that the remaining taunt duration remaining on the target was used. So if you enhanced the duration of Taunt, then it would increase the threat multiplier of it. What the MAG of taunts do is to check to see whether the mob is effected or not, just like how holds/etc work. The thing is, very few mobs have taunt protection/resistance, so MAG is almost always inconsequential since it usually passes.

If taunt enhancers indeed increase the MAG and not the duration (assuming all other info provided by Castle is correct), it provides next to no benefit. Of course, trying to test it to see which is which isn't going to be easy (if even possible due to all the unknown variables at this point).

Okay, so the current design indicates all Scrapper Confronts should have a value of 15 (Fiery Melee/Confront is still 20 scale), while Brutes/Tankers should all be 20 scale. I'd say anything that deviates from that is a bug.

Wait a minute, the magnitude is what was increased in the real numbers window? Well, that's unexpected and contrary to what we've been told (that taunt duration enhancers enhance, well, duration instead of magnitude). It's not, however impossible for them to function in this manner. (Intangible enhancements, for example, enhance the magnitude of FF/Sonic Cage powers.)

This raises a few possibilities:

1) "Real Numbers" is interpretting what enhancers are doing incorrectly. This isn't too hard to believe, since "Real Numbers" is interpretting MAG as a percent.

2) How Taunt powers are enhanced isn't standardized. ie: Some Taunt powers (DM and SS in this case) are flagged to have their MAG enhanced rather than duration. I'll take a look tonight at how "real numbers" displays my Stone and Fiery Melee Taunts as.

3) Taunt enhancers have always modified MAG rather than duration and we were just mistold. (This is just another reason I need to try retesting taunt mechanics, since we were told that MAG plays a very minor role, yet I've noticed a considerable difference between base Taunt and a fully slotted one.)

Curiousier and curiouser...

I believe it to be a bug. I don't see any logical reason for certain Taunts/Confronts to be of different strengths on the same ATs. I think there are two possible courses of action:

1) Standardize the duration for each AT. This means all Tanker Taunts would be 20 scale and Scrapper Confronts would be 15 scale. (The devs would have to decide if Brutes should be 15 or 20. My personal opinion is that they should be 15.)

2) Standard the duration for all ATs. This means all Taunts/Confronts would be either scale 15 or scale 20. When that is done, increase or lower the actual taunt modifier itself. This is a more drastic change, since it would modifier other taunt effects (like auras/provoke). If this option were chosen, my choice would be to just increase the Tanker taunt mod.

I think that #1 is the more likely of the two options, but I personally think that #2 should be taken. It would prevent this from happening in the future, and I personally think Tankers should have the strongest taunt effects in the game.

Next time you get a chance (if it's before me), could you take a look at Brute/Claws/Taunt as well? I'd be interested to see if they bumped that up from 30.75s (scale 15) to 41s (scale 20) when porting it.

I think it's dubious that it's an error on CoD's part. As far as I can tell, this data isn't manually updated. I say this because there is far too much data included to be kept up to date manually - not to mention data that is completely invisible to us. If memory serves, the first version of CoD was created directly from a copy of the spreadsheet that the devs use to enter power data. (Which would also explain why it wasn't updated for such a long stretch of time after its launch.)

I think it most certainly makes a difference. The 41s Taunts are 33.33% stronger than the 30.75s version. That is a huge disparity, and it can be crippling when trying to maintain a threat lead on other taunt capable ATs (Brutes, Inv/Shield Scrappers).

I never noticed you mentioning a specific duration before, but this actually depends on the set:

Battle Axe - 41s
Energy Melee - 41s
Fire Melee - 41s
Ice Melee - 41s
Stone Melee - 41s
Super Strength - 41s
War Mace - 41s

Dark Melee - 30.75s
Dual Blades - 30.75s

It looks like Dark Melee / Dual Blades had their Taunt/Confront power set to 15 scale Melee_Taunt and the duration was kept when being transferred to Tankers, despite the fact Tanker Taunts usually have 20 scale Melee_Taunt. (On a similar note, Fiery Melee Taunt/Confront stayed 20 scale when being ported from Tankers to Scrappers, so that Confront is unusually strong in comparison to other Scrapper Confronts.)

Oh absolutely. I'd consider a nice mix of taunt duration and recharge. (I'd go for 50/50 of both until ~60% enhancement, then I'd give preference to taunt duration.) The duration increases how potent it is at holding aggro, while recharge allows you to spread it around to more mobs, quicker. (Keep in mind that the Purple Patch reduces the effectiveness of taunt duration.)

If you end up looking for an IO build, I'd strongly suggest 4-6 slots of Mocking Beratement or Perfect Zinger. Both have excellent set bonuses and enhance both aspects very well.

Another tactic to put into your toolbox: making time to establish aggro. What do I mean? Well, instead of sticking around to the end of every fight, start leaving early and get to the spawn before the group does. When the spawn is mostly defeated, the group can (usually) take the punishment of a few stragglers. (Besides, while you're traveling to the next spawn, several of them could be taunted to you anyways.) By leaving at that point and heading to the next spawn, you've bought yourself a 5-10s buffer to establish aggro, regardless of what the team does.

It takes practice to get the timing right, since you need to find out how long it takes groups to kill spawns, how much damage they can take, and how much damage you can take. If the group is killing slower, you can stick with the group longer before going ahead. If the group is pretty brittle (little to no support) then you should stick around longer than if there are 2 Colds on the team. If you can take truckloads of damage (factor in enemy makeup), then you can leave earlier than if you redline after each alpha. Start conservatively, then work your way up until you have a good rhythm going.


(For reference, my standard procedure to establish aggro is to Taunt the opposite side of a mob while I jump into it following up with my AoE(s). The reason being is this will tend to bunch up the far mobs for better AoEs, while using AoEs/Gauntlet to grab initial aggro from the mobs around me. I Taunt them, too, when it recycles to make sure I have their attention.)

[edit: I know that as SS you don't have access to any AoEs until 38 and Footstomp. It will get a lot easier after that. Taunt + AoEs is the best thing you can do to hold aggro for groups as a WP.]

The main reason I'd never slot DP with a full set of Numinas is because it really diminishes the unique's potency. The unique is a proc, meaning the power it is slotted in needs to be used in order to "turn it on." After using the power, the effect lingers for 120s - the exact same duration of DP. In other words, unless you have perma DP and use it on every cooldown (wasting the heal), you won't have the regen/recov bonuses permanently. Numina's 6 slot bonus (3.75% range def, 1.88% e/ne def) is nowhere near worth losing that.

Another lesser known tidbit: if you place Numina in a power where it activates frequently (such as a passive like Health) it will stack while zoning. For example, you're in RWZ and enter a Borea mission, you'll have ~2 minutes of the Numina double stacking. I'm not exactly sure on the particulars, but I believe this is because your character's "ID" changes when you zone, so buffs that are set not to self stack will stack since they were cast by different IDs.

The Steadfast unique is always on, even if the power isn't active. You could place it in Unstoppable and the bonus would persist even if you never used the power - so don't worry about it dropping. It works the same way for all IOs that function like set bonuses (show up in your bonus window, ex: kb protection).

I believe that it will work when exemped below the level of the power so long as you don't exemplar more than three levels below the enhancement.

What I find really interesting about the Reichsman encounter is the difference between the hero and villain versions. Red side, the fight is very tough. The ambushes just add so much pressure and will break teams without excessive control or def buffs (preferably to the softcap). Failing to kill him on the first shot means fighting through 30 or more minutes of constant ambushes for a second attempt. If you pull it off in the first go, though, it's very fun and engaging.

Blue side is much more straightforward, but also less fun and engaging. If you don't have the necessary damage/debuffs, it easily devolves into just a slow dps race punctuated by AV "ambushes." Even counting his "hax rank", you can still plow through him pretty quick.

No argument that the last encounter of the LRSF isn't planned as well as some of the newer TFs; even the STF. I do see them evolving over time, though. While it doesn't help some of the older content, it's still encouraging for future content.

Bosses that do anything different in stages, or bosses that aren't unique at all? I can think of several bosses that do things that are pretty unique. Staying within the Carnies, the Dark Ring Mistresses and Master Illusionists are pretty special. They're definitely bosses that you have to take notice of. Another example could be Rularuu Overseers. They're pretty nasty, and at 25% health, they do summon backup. (Yes, they do have abilities that you could classify as "cheaty," though.)

Normal bosses probably won't get anything too special because you run into them too frequently. If you have to do a special song and dance to kill one everytime you run into them, their uniqueness would rub off really quick. (I'm looking at you MoG Paragon Protectors.)

I think that the devs have been trying to make fights that are different / more interesting than the AVs of old. They used to simply be big sacks of hp with different powers that they used at random. (This leads to AVs with dramatically different power levels. For example, compare Nosferatu to, say, Burkholder.)

Fast forward to the ITF. Now you're dealing with multiple AVs at a time, different stages (a new one with each Nicti death), ambushes, etc. Then there is the Khan TF/Barracuda SF. Khan has several stages (AVs adding in) while the Barracuda SF has persistence ambushes and many gadgets to use. It could be said that Reichsman is a bag of hitpoints, but the fight itself has more going on than just that.

Let's not forget the new events, like the Halloween event (which required coordinated killing of mobs at four different places at the same time) and the revamped Winter Lord. I think the new Winter Lord was a really fun fight. It had a lot of things going on, without anything that was excessively cheaty. There were slows from the Winter Lord, detoggles (the thing I disliked most about the fight), short duration holds that will blow through Tank status protection, as well as adds that debuff def to prevent the encounter from being a simple "tank and spank." (Tanks can't keep all the aggro, so squishies need to work to keep themselves alive, as well.) All this with GM ambushes and a time limit.

Paragon Studios is getting a lot better at making interesting fights that aren't just all the same. Some encounters (Romulus, Winter Lord) are better than others (Reichsman), but the standard does seem to be changing. I think this is mostly for the better, but I do hope they don't become too formulaic where you need a complicated strategy guide for every AV/GM fight such as you do for WoW.

I'm pretty excited to see what the PS has in store for us in Going Rogue in this area.

The Patron AVs in the STF are lvl54, not lvl53. That is a significant decrease in player effectiveness against them, and a increase in their effectiveness against the players.

On a character with 0% def, it would take 6 licks per minute to keep Recluse floored. That means a player with a full tray of purples (no greens, etc) would run out in 3 minutes. I've seen teams take much longer than that, especially when the repairmen were bugged. That is also ignoring the fact that the tohit buff is in the Blue Tower, so even when the Red Tower is down, Recluse will be hitting at an accellerated rate.

(That actually got me killed once, four of his Jabs hit me in a row and broke my status protection. Squish!)

---

Do I think the LRSF is harder than the STF? Yeah, but that is also because I've run the STF far more often than the LRSF and my friends and I have a much bigger pool of heroes to draw from than we do villains.

In PvE it provides s/l res, but in PvP it is res to all.