The new fury changes?

The truth is this:

It was a buff if you were unskilled at playing brutes, and a nerf if you weren't.

It's generally a buff for low level Brutes who are basically unable to survive the kind of aggro that was required to generate high fury, unless you simply refilled on a full tray of lucks for every mission.

At the top end, it's a nerf.

I don't mind it overall, the normalization of the Fury mechanic works better for more people - even if that means outlier cases like myself are effectively downgraded.

That being said, I think there are cases where certain powers and powersets that simply underperform for Brutes should be looked at (I'd also like slightly higher than Scrapper base defense numbers, but lower than Tankers - but that's a pipe dream).

Claws for example was tweaked when it was ported to Brutes and I wish more of the sets were tailored to work better with the design of the AT.

I also dislike the Unattainable Full Fury/Frenzy Bar "solution", but I'm pretty sure that will remain as is as well.

This by far. My fury bar is alot lower. I never had issues building fury ever. I always had brawl or tier 1 on autofire. So having 90% fury was a constant thing. So for me its definately a nerf.

This I dont believe for one second. If it were really true Castle wouldnt be so scared to buff stalkers. Back in the recent beta I made the post about wanting stalker changes and he reposted his response in the live forums. For some reason the devs are seriously out of tune as to what the game problems actually are. He thought one of stalkers main problems was shared aggro on teams when actually thats like the very least of our concerns. I know in that thread pretty much everyone said that was the last thing stalker players worry about. Our issue is the lack of AoE and not having single target damage strong enough to warrant giving up said AoE and certain defensive powers.

So unless we get a stalker revamp that either gives back all the missing powers or they raise stalker and blaster melee mods (yes blasters dont do enough damage to justify their squishieness too) to the point way above scrappers and give them the real build up instead of the watered down version all the other classes get, I dont see stalkers ever really benefiting the team. Some would aggro the stalker team crit buff fixed this but to me it made the problem even more noticeable. Stalker only really see a benefit if there is a melee heavy team, but if you already have melee damage why do you need a stalker in the first place? This is why I felt the buff should have been what the old sidekick range was so that stalkers could always benefit from it no matter the team composition and at the same time keep stalkers from wondering off from the team getting themselves kill.

Hey, you know there's this other place on the forums for talking about Stalkers?

Here, I'll give you a link.

That's incredibly rude.

But it's true.

The truth is, there were many factors that could interfere with Fury building besides player skill. But for the highest performance Brutes, for the most synergistic power sets, it was a nerf.

Brutes still work fine even with the nerf, though, and it's only about a 13% reduction in DPS, solo. And that's if you assume your Fury has fallen from 90% to 65%. (The so-called "30% reduction in +damage from Fury") I personally have no problem running around 75%.

On teams, in really heavy enemy saturation I can maintain 80% as long as I'm totally surrounded.

Grabbing taunt as one of my i19 "freebie" power picks has probably boosted my overall top end of fury by 5% in comparison.

That's actually pretty good, I had reached the conclusion that 80% was impossible.

I guess the short answer is, it IS possible to raise your individual Fury cap, but it takes WAY more work than it did before.

I'd also be interested in seeing if the Fury gained with Frenzy decays so quickly as to be useless, or if it can be preserved if activated in combat.

I still agree that a lot of the issue is there's more unused bar than there used to be. It is frustrating to be shown a goal and be unable to achieve it.

Unfortunately the decay begins immediately.

It's like a really weak, really short duration build up that provides you with +50% damage but wont provide that bonus for more than 1 attack, as it decays.


I never use it that way, and save it for times when I really want to throw a little extra rech to get something up a little quicker or I use it if I ever have to play catch up or there aren't enough mobs to provide solid Fury.

Everything in the game works fine. The problem is the definition of fine. Brutes could have the damage output of defenders and they would still be working fine.

From where I am looking the changes to Brutes were made because the developers were worried Brutes would become the damage dealing pick because they did more damage and were more survivable. Their solution make brutes less damaging than scrappers by nerfing fury, and make scrappers more survivable than brutes by giving them shadow meld.

That would be true, but they also nerfed the damage cap of brutes.

Can I see those macros? I'd like to use them for converting purples.

I have only once in a blue moon ever reached that damage cap.

Its not something I strive for.

I try to keep my damage output somewhere in between 300-400%, so, the damage cap lowering isn't something I have noticed in terms of damage output effectiveness.

You bet. keep in mind this is an old setup, it still works <for me> and I'm certain that the macro savvy would have some major improvements to this setup.

r1

insp_combine "insight" "enrage"$$insp_combine "keen insight" "focused rage"$$insp_combine "luck" "enrage"$$insp_combine "good luck" "focused rage"

r2

insp_combine "catch a breath" "enrage"$$insp_combine "take a breather" "focused rage"$$insp_combine "respite" "enrage"$$insp_combine "dramatic improvement" "focused rage"

r3

insp_combine "sturdy" "enrage"$$insp_combine "rugged" "focused rage"$$insp_combine "break free" "enrage"$$insp_combine "emerge" "focused rage"$$insp_combine "awaken" "enrage"$$insp_combine "bounce back" "focused rage"

use

inspexec_name enrage$$inspexec_name focused rage

A Scrapper can do this as well, and will totally outclass the brute if they do.

This was also true before the Fury change.

I REALLY doubt that. 0.65 damage with no Fury would not survive very long, even with a Brute's HP. Heck even a Tanker with 0.65 damage wouldn't be capable of soloing.

Of course you might mean "The damage output of defenders" as in "A team of Repeat Offenders steamrollering over everything in sight."

Absolutely.

What I do when I play, a scraps would -almost- be perfect if survivability wasn't an issue.

Three minions is what they are supposed to survive against/solo.

Jack Emmert doesn't work here anymore.

And I STILL don't think it would be enough.

I had a time soloing a Tanker with 0.7 damage. I shudder to think what 0.65 would be like. Maybe ONE white minion. Maybe. If he had one attack and a -Res debuff on him.

MrHassenpheffer give you his macros, but
here is guide about them.

"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time"- Chesty Puller US Marine Corps

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Thanks! I was looking for that, as I am sure others were as well, bookmarked and I'll point others to it.

It falls apart when you look at Stalkers because they are broken. Castle never said WAI. He said:
Stalkers are still broken, but fixing them would require major game engine rework which Paragon doesn't have the resources for.
Linky: [http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...light=stalker]

Taken from what you quoted:

Which means that their damage level relative to other ATs is WAI. Ambushes seeing through stealth and team shared aggro aren't big factors in the AT's damage output.