Before I make a fool of myself...

... and go ranting on the general forums, thought I'd ask the people I trust for info.

Has anything been changed stats-wise with GR? Mainly concerning defense???

I used to be able to take 3 of the 4 AVs (all level 54) in the STF at once for a considerable amount of time before I got into trouble. Yesterday, I did the Baracuda SF, and got 3 shotted by level 50 AVs... multiple times! And they were coming at me one at a time!

Did I miss something in the patch notes? Did something get changed?? The only thing I did notice so far is a proc in one of my powers giving different numbers now (94HP compared to 99HP pre-GR). I dont remember the specific numbers I had defense-wise pre-GR, so looking at the numbers I have now doesnt tell me anything.

Another thing to keep in mind is that your STF team was probably armed to the teeth with buffs and debuffs. A lot of teams running for badges as of late wouldn't have that kind of a team build. So what did you have for backup in each scenario?

2 Rads should have been enough, assuming they were using both toggles (Enervating Field and Radiation Infection) and using Lingering Radiation each time it's available.

No one had the Dimensional Grounding Ray? No one got the temp power or no one put in on their tray?

Odd...

Wish I could tell you one way or the other, but I only recently added Parry to my Super Reflex Scrapper. So... I'm actually WAY more survivable than I use to be.

We were doing the villain version, not the hero version. From what I'm told we needed a MM to have a specific temp power...

But even before that mission, I was getting 3 shotted by AVs 3 levels lower than what I'm accustomed to. That should not have been happening.

Yeah that was my first MoBSF and I didn't realize we needed an MM to get the Black Scorpion temp power that prevents Reichs from going Unbreakable. We did have 2 rads, but I think one didn't have lingering rad yet (only 48, dinged 49 and got it afterwards) and both kept getting stunned because they got too close to Reichs (his AOE is really big!).

I asked Oz what his numbers were and he said tat his s/l/e/n defense was in the mid to upper 30s I think. With even a small defense buff from fort or a bubble he'd be over the cap. Also, Ice Armor depends heavily on its aura being a damage debuff. However AVs heavily resist such debuffs. So it's conceivable that an AV with high tohit attacking when our rad debuffers were stunned could hit Oz 3 times in a short time period when the Ice Dp equivalent is down and take him out. The problem is this happened several times which seems unlikely.

Interestingly enough, I again attempted (and succeeded at) the MoBSF last night with 4 MMs, a Blaster, Warshade (Me), Dom, and a Stone Brute. The MMs were /ff, /pain, /storm, etc. with leadership and we had tons of buffs. The Stone Brute had defense numbers in the 50% range and we had spot heals from O2 boost. And stone has both +regen and massive resistence in granite/rooted. Even so he nearly dropped several times in the final fight (as did I even with perma 85% res in dwarf form due to team link). The MMs were amazing by the way, reminded me a lot of a day long ago when a Corruptorless, MM heavy team (including Badge and I on our MMs) finished the LRSF back when the AVs were level 54 and IOs didn't exist.

So in short Oz, I think you just got unlucky combined with missing about one key buffer. If you recall there was a stretch against Reichs where he didn't scratch you for a LONG time. Of course, we couldn't scratch him either.

Next time, I'll bring my MM, troller, or defender to the party now that my badge obsession is sated. And why can't we IO you out to the gills so your natural defense is about 5 to 10 pts higher and your +hp click is perma?

Edit: And if you really want to see how the experts get the BSF done, you might want to run it with Kid, Talbein, Impyre, Chiller, etc. They have far more experience on the extreme TFs, especially villain-side. But wouldn't it be epic if us POW channel folks could do it? Maybe we should bring out all the old guard (you, me, alber, stale, cass, tab, teen, tal, etc.) and teach Reichs a lesson?

And yes, the Cyst ambushes were just wrong!

When you mentioned multiple AVs I immediately considered the hero version. My error.

All I have for comment is that my SR Brute was doing fairly well before I15 with little problems for soloing. I went up against some Longbow at even con a few days ago and they tore him up like nobody's business.

Anecdotal evidence I know. It seems like some changes may have been made to enemy debuffing. I take my willpower tank up against anything that debuffs and it's like tossing him into a paper shredder. I don't remember either of those toons being that squishy pre-GR.

I thought maybe it was me, but after reading a couple observations here I'm left wondering if some alterations have made their way to live without being mentioned in patch notes. I too have noticed a difference in how well several toons behave/perform ingame since GR hit. Particularly, my BS/WP Scrapper and Elec/WP Brute. Previously, both were outstanding in all kinds of weather vs. a wide variety of damage types. But, these days they are decidedly average. They are by no means "broken", but there certainly seems to be something different about how they hold up in a fight...

I feel there is something we cannot yet see...

Something hidden... elusive.