Siolfir

No, it doesn't break hide. It uses the same mechanic as Lightning Rod/Shield Charge, by teleporting the character and summoning a pet to deal damage.

Will I take it on any of my existing characters? Probably not, if only because I'm too lazy to make new builds (heck, I've only used a respec for inherent fitness on 5 characters so far!). It's funny watching someone in Granite Armor use, though.

And for calling it the "catgirl pounce attack"... hm, maybe I will respec someone. Obligatory Catgirl (DP/MM Blaster) could pick it up just because I ran out of thematic powers I felt like taking, and it can set up Drain Psyche/Hail of Bullets.

The "don't care" part was specifically referring to the stacking stealth. I know that it works. It was never in debate for me.

For the rest of it, players can use the attribute monitor and power analyzer to check their stealth radius and mob perception radius. I think that the "radius" is offset towards the front of the mob to let facing have an effect on perception (ie, it's shorter behind them and longer ahead of them), but can't guarantee it and the specifics of the exact radius really only matter to me when trying to sneak through crowded maps, when Fury would set the mobs off rather than mob proximity.

Whether or not Fury still notifies mobs is something I'm interested in knowing and probably could look into, but I just haven't been logged in to the game in the past couple of days. Easy tests to check for this involve using other characters with unsuppressing stealth (Cold Domination, Dark Armor, Dark Miasma, Storm, Warshades) and a stealth IO to stack with it, then walk up next to - as in, bumping - a mob that would otherwise aggro on you, wait for 10 seconds, see what happens, then do the same thing with a Brute. It's what I've done in the past to check the issue in the first place (with the now-deleted EM/EA I mentioned earlier). To specifically check EA, use a Scrapper and a Brute (my EA Scrapper doesn't have Energy Cloak, so I'd go with a Sonic/Cold Corruptor). If it doesn't aggro on the non-Brute, and aggros on the Brute, then Fury is still notifying mobs. That would be the issue with not being able to approach things rather than Energy Cloak.

Edit: Also, Sarrate did a great job explaining what I was talking about before with not trusting the number of buffs listed in the display for Entropic Aura due to timing of the refreshes. The display refreshing less often like it does currently doesn't fix the issue as much as provide fewer chances to notice it.

Edit 2: Fury is still notifying mobs around you. When it notifies mobs (which will happen within 10 seconds of standing nearby) the stealth from the Stealth IO proc drops and the transparency fades - this is without Entropic Aura on and happens regardless of the mob level you approach. When within 10', you can't guarantee stacked stealth as a Brute without specifically timing an alarm for it, and then only for up to 10 seconds before Fury breaks it. Mobs can and will aggro based on relative level - if they are within level range to attack you, they do (tested with -10s and -2s because I was doing outdoor testing).

This did not happen on my Dark/Cold Corruptor using Arctic Fog and a Stealth IO, as the IO proc remained in effect no matter how long I was near the mobs. It also did not happen with my Warshade running Superspeed and Shadow Cloak, so the issue seems specific to Brutes. To ensure it was not just an "EA" thing, I also swapped to my EM/ElA who uses Superspeed and a Stealth IO for 65' of stealth. When standing next to -35s in Cap, my stealth radius dropped to 0' after roughly 8 seconds with no other input and no offensive toggles running.

Conclusion of short round of testing: Fury is still causing suppressing stealth to break by notifying nearby mobs every 10 seconds that you're present; this is treated as an attack by the stealth which then suppresses, and mobs are notified that you are present regardless of your stealth level.

And I can run up to a mob with just Superspeed (and its 35' of stealth) running, bounce off of them and rush through the spawn to the other side without any aggro. Mob AI doesn't react immediately, and the gauge you're using (less than Energy Drain, more than melee) isn't exactly extremely accurate - for starters, you don't know how large the visual effect for Energy Drain is compared to the power's actual radius of 12'. If you want to claim "I tested this to exactly 8 feet", get a kill-all, clear it until the last couple of mobs show up on the map, click on one of them and use the navigation pointer to measure the distance. I don't question your results as much as the conclusions you're drawing and methodology leading to them - I think you're hitting 10' and calling it 8'.

I certainly don't trust using Entropic Aura to say it's exactly 8' due to it counting you as a target (shown by the 8.5% recharge bonus instead of 5% whether you're near anything or not - not your "just jumped away" screenshot, but every single case of the power being toggled on with my level 10 KM/EA Brute plus a screenshot of someone standing at the market) and then apparently not giving any recharge bonus for others; it could be a glitch in the real numbers updating since most toggles that have stacking effects can appear twice on the same bonus due to update frequency, effect duration, and toggle activation time, but you don't see them not show up at all unless something is being suppressed (which shouldn't happen unless you're mezzed).

The Stealth IOs do stack with Energy Cloak, as does Superspeed. It's something that shows up in the stealth radius monitor, as well as the ability to stand near mobs for extended periods of time that would aggro on you if they didn't. The "incompatible" concealment powers are mutually exclusive toggles. If you don't believe me, I don't really care. I know better and have used this for years (specifically, since issue 8 on an EM/EA with Superspeed).

And if Fury was fixed, great. That was what I was hoping for when it was brought up in the thread. If not, oh well. I haven't specifically logged on my DM/EA (with a Stealth IO, for 65' of stealth radius in the monitor) and stood near things without attacking to check. Either way it would have no effect on low level mobs, because grey mobs don't attack you if they notice you regardless (only if taunted or attacked).

Because the critical damage is also affected by slotting, I want the most out of the damage slotting I can get - a base damage of 389 on the critical means that 20% lost not topping it off is around 78 extra hp on the actual attack. That's the difference between killing a Lt and leaving them with a sliver of health (around 9% of their hp at level 50).

For sets, since I tend to use six Touch of Deaths if I want defense or five Crushing Impact for recharge - but I also usually am trying to build positional defense and those sets hit past the ED cap for +damage. If you want just S/L defense Kinetic Combat works, and I plan to put them on my KM/EA who still needs to respec for the i21 changes, but I bump up the accuracy and damage with extra slots every time I use Kinetic Combats because the enhancement numbers are pretty low otherwise.

For minimal slotting, toss in 2 Acc/Dam (S)HOs and a damage enhancement, and don't use it that often.

Of the two choices listed, Electric has better single-target damage (wanted for bosses) and a less-resisted damage type. Since it also has high AoE burst damage, it's one of the best overall PvE sets for Stalkers and I recommend it, KM, and DM as "can't really go wrong" primaries.

That said, if you'd rather do Spines you can make it work, and if you use the crystal spines and color them right they look like icicles so might fit the concept better. How far developed is the character concept, and how important is the difference in single-target damage to you?

Then to be perfectly blunt about it, they're going to lose to the typical pvp characters. There's a reason that they're typical. And I even play some of those "non-traditional" characters in "just for fun" arena matches, but I don't expect to be successful, or even really competitive.

Playing a melee in general isn't a recipe for killing things in PvP, it's more of an "I don't want to die as often" move - and if you don't want the typical PvP character you wouldn't even ask about a Regen, which has been FotM since forever. The difference between a Regen Brute and a Regen Scrapper is that the Scrapper has a chance to get a kill or two against someone not paying attention, while for the Brute they have to also be either stupid or afk.

Welcome to damage-spam-and-sack-of-hp PvP. Issue 13 did more to kill variety and encourage FotM builds while simultaneously increasing the barrier to entry due to changing how powers work, in direct opposition to the stated goals of encouraging new players to try it and reducing "requisite" builds. That's why it's a huge failure, and why it never should have gone live and should have been revisited long before now.

It doesn't crit. It just hits for harder than an AS crit all the time.

True, they do roughly the same damage, and due to diminishing returns they have roughly the same resistance. The Tanker gets more hit points, though, and since melees in PvP are either imposing self-inflicted limitations (ie, fiteclub) or are simply a large sack of hit points that hopes to distract the ATs that can deal damage from their might-have-a-chance-to-deal-damage teammates, you pretty much just want the one with more hit points.

While you're at it:
Scrapper Concentrated Strike (PvP): 441 damage
Brute Concentrated Strike: 167 damage
Stalker Concentrated Strike: 179 damage
Stalker Assassin's Strike (from hidden): 389 damage

Why make a Regen Brute if you want to kill things in PvP?

Because it's easier to assume people are being ***hats when dealing with something where intent is questionable on the internet. It's possible that the person who took it wasn't trying to be a d-bag, but if you assume that they are you get to be all indignant - and that's a lot more fun! Everyone likes to be righteously indignant here, just look at all the farming threads!

There's also the point that, if they knew that someone else used it, it would've been easier for whoever took it to leave the name available.

The glowing from the war walls interferes with the telescopes.

Well, technically Corruptors got an AT-modified version, too - it doesn't use the Blaster pseudopet like the Dominator APP version does. It's just that the Corruptor AT-modified version does the same base damage as the Blaster version (1.67 fire damage per tick), and Scourges for twice as much damage as it should (3.34 per tick).

Ah. I thought I saw someone say in a build discussion that they weren't knocked by a (slotted) Force Bolt at 42, which is why that came to mind - I didn't do testing with it myself. And let's face it: it's a much better number for an answer anyway.

Ice Storm does the same base damage for Blasters, Defenders, and Corruptors. For Blasters and Defenders it's because it uses the exact same pseudopet, but the Corruptor version had Scourge added and does more damage when mobs get low on hit points due to that. If Mid's is showing significantly higher damage on the Defender it's probably either a bug or one has something turned on that the other doesn't (alpha musculature?).

Tar Patch and Sleet also use pseudopets, thus ignoring AT modifiers unless the pet is specifically changed to account for them. Defenders and Corruptors share Tar Patch, and the Defender pseudopet for Sleet didn't get the extra -defense and -resistance that it should have when it was proliferated. Controllers and Dominators share the Defender pet for Sleet.

Which was kindof my whole point - it depends on your playstyle preferences and what you want out of the character; even then the powerset combination you're looking at can still swing things one side or the other.

I'll buy that, it's not so much ranting as trolling in your case.

In any case, I said "most of" so it doesn't disprove my statement at all.

You've been around these forums for how long, now, that you question this?

You mean that ranting about insignificant things isn't why most of us made forum accounts in the first place?

This.

The lower level APP unlock means that my Dominators get Sleet at the same level that my Corruptors do, though - which made a difference on what I was making on Exalted.

And when you get past level 31? Or do you never play anyone past that level? Bitter Ice Blast shows up all of 10 levels later for a Defender, which is what... two task forces or twenty minutes in AE?

I did state that power order is one of the differences, but it's not as simple as "the Corruptor always has the advantage" there, either. It happens to be that way for Ice, Rad, and Fire Blast, which get their third hard-hitting attack much later. But the Defender is also going to get some powers much faster as well: do you really enjoy waiting until level 35 for Sleet, and 38 for Melt Armor?

Even given that, for many blast sets the "heavy hitter" attack is only a handful of levels difference and the order would make little difference in when you get it slotted up. As an example, Sonic Blast is almost always skewed drastically in the Defender's favor simply because Shout is available early if you want it; Energy Blast is set up the same way.

How many of those attack powers you're activating so much more often trigger Scourge? Because those are the only ones doing more damage than the Defender if you're soloing.

The Vigilance changes rather deliberately erased most of the benefit of the higher Corruptor damage scale when both are solo. Corruptors still do slightly more damage due to Scourge, plus in many situations you can leverage the higher scale (and more specifically the higher damage cap) to lengthen the lead, but the standard ED-capped SO slotting leaves both doing roughly the same damage for the first 50-75% of the fight.

Or, say you're using a scale 1 attack (like Ice Bolt).
Solo Defender: 0.65 (at mod) * 1.0 (attack scale) * (1.0 base + 0.95 slotting + 0.3 solo vig buff) = 1.4625 scale damage
Corruptor: 0.75 (at mod) * 1.0 (attack scale) * (1.0 base + 0.95 slotting) = 1.4625

So let's throw in the effect of those buffs and debuffs... how about a Rad with AM running and using EF?
Defender: 0.65 * 1.0 * (1.0 + 0.95 + 0.3 + 0.25 AM) * 1.3 (res debuff) = 2.1125
Corruptor: 0.75 * 1.0 * (1.0 + 0.95 + 0.2 AM) * 1.225 = 1.9753125

In this case, most of the time the Defender is doing more damage, using an AoE toggle debuff and self +damage powers.

It's not as cut-and-dried as people try to make it, where "Corruptor = more damage". As for power selection order, that makes some difference. But not in a large number of sets, and in many cases you'd rather have the buff/debuff power earlier.