Super Reflexes for Tanks

Just a thought for some minor buffs to super reflexes that might make the set more viable for tanks, but would also benefit other ATs.

Evasion, the AoE defence toggle could be given a damage debuff aura - it has already had a taunt aura added for brutes, but this could be extended to scrappers and tanks and given the damage debuff effect, ~14% the same as Ice Armor's Chilling Embrace. This could be explained as being able to better roll with attacks made at close range, reducing their effectiveness.

Another possibility is Practiced Brawler, the click mez protection, could have a +HP effect added - no heal, just raising the maximum HP, by 10% perhaps? This would add being able to slot heal enhancements and sets to increase the bonus and encourage further slotting for recharge to benefit from stacking the effect.

This would add a couple of extra tricks to the currently rather one-dimensional set and give it a more meaningful taunt aura.

Thoughts?

If Tanks ever get it, it will likely be a carbon copy of the Brute set, complete with the Taunt aura in it.

However, the main problem is that it might be too good for Tankers at doing what it does. Current Brute values put SR at about 19.5% Defense to the positions. Slotted, that's about 30% Defense.

Now, if we bring that over to Tankers, given that Brutes and Scrappers get 75% of the value a Tanker would get, that would bring it up to about 26% Def base value, going up to 40.57% Defense with just SOs and no additional powers. Add combat jumping (2.5% Def base, going up to 3.9% slotted), and you're within 0.5% of the soft cap, by level 22 when you can get SOs.

I'd rather have Energy Aura on a tank.

Hmmm... my own proposals could be, using something of the Swap ammo power selection tech, we could make it so that grabbing evasion becomes like getting two powers at once. you get the defense toggle and a taunt aura that costs no additional endurance, this might even be applicable for brutes.

Now as for the problems with this: SR, as people have mentioned, is a one-trick pony. It's a VERY good trick, but that's not enough tricks for a tank.
Scaling resists tend to do barely anything for even brutes, let alone scrappers and stalkers.
My own solution to that would be to give the passives an additional, base-line resistance bonus. Perhaps a small resistance boost and all three stacking to something... appreciable (possibly totaling no more than 15%), or have each one give specific resistances. Given that we can see the defense values on an SR tank would be sizable with the toggles alone, we could even possibly sacrifice the defense and/or scaling resists values of the passives.
But Arcanaville has pointed out that we need to ask if SR really DESERVES this treatment? My SR scrapper can work wonders, both solo and on a team. Just NEVER as him to tank because he will lose aggro and you WILL faceplant. (but on the bonus side, I have vengeance. so you help me, even in defeat)
Then there's the fact that these additions may make shield defense obsolete and SR tanks too powerful. Take into consideration that a tank has about 25% more HP than a brute (if I recall), and while the passive, scaling resists for SR are unaffected by AT mods, with all three, you can end up with +40% resistances to all but toxic and psionic, on top of any possible added defense.

As one person put it: Regen and SR are, perhaps, the most difficult armor sets to proliferate because it took so long to get them balanced for its original AT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

/SIGNED

Just take Brute SR and port it to Tanks. The uberness of easy softcap would be offset by the few shortcomings the set has. Personally, I call that balanced.

Sure, sets like Shield and Ice have Defense along with other tools for survival, but since they don't get to keep their Defense, they need those tools. SR has no such problem. It keeps its defense, thus no extra tools necessary. SR is the Golden Fox of powersets, after all. Stripped down, sleek, and highly effective.

You know, that's the only thing that's keeping Energy Aura on the low-end of survivability: it depends on its Defense every bit as much as SR does but it lacks the Defense Debuff protection it needs to keep it so it gets squashed in situations where SR wouldn't. Of course, its 100% vulnerability to Psi doesn't help much, either. SR at least gets to mitigate 99% of the Psi attacks in the game because they're positional.

P.S. Don't underestimate the value of the scaling Resists. On a Scrapper they're very helpful, on a Brute they're incredible and on a Tanker they'd be amazing (but not unbalancingly so).

WARNING: I bold names.

SR would be a horrible set for tanks.

You'd be able to dodge most things coming at you, but what you can't dodge will flatten you in seconds. Can you honestly say you'd want an SR tank to be tanking for you in a DE mission? Or Nemesis? Or the Apex TF?

SR is a good set, but when your teammates are depending on you to remain alive in order to keep them alive, it has too many weaknesses. No heal power, you only start getting any resistance when you're almost dead, and 2-3 lucky shots in a row will ruin your day.

The best tank sets are the ones that layer mitigation, and SR really can't layer anything substantial, because it only has defense as a base to build off of. Resist based sets can add defense with relative ease, defense based sets can't really add resistance, and if you want a self heal you need to pair it with DM or take Aid Self, which has a long animation time and is interruptable.

SR is too much of a one trick pony to ever make a good tanker set. The closest comparable set would be Shield Defense, and it has more than just defense going for it. It has +HP, some resistance built in, a damage debuff aura, and significant offensive boosts. SR has none of those.

Does that +10% stack from the same caster?