Two questions I been wondering

Just a bit of history.

Way back before Issue 11 there was no such thing as power customization: http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/pat...es_112807.html

Back then, if you wanted to have an Axe instead of a Mace, you needed a completely new power set that featured an Axe instead of a mace. The Cross-over between Axe and Mace can also be seen in Broadsword / Katana. At some point they were the same power-set with different animations.

Over the years the developers have implemented changes to each set to try and make each set different. However, those changes are limited by the cottage rule: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Cottage_Rule


... yes. they do.

According to various forum posters Brutes only need to generate 63% fury to do the same average damage as a scrapper... a less than trivial task since the major buff Brute's received to Fury Generation: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Patch_No...0-08-16#Brutes

This means that in casual play a Brute can average more damage than a scrapper.

In team play, the situation changes: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Damage_Cap#Damage

Brutes have a maximum damage cap of 775%
Scrappers have a maximum damage cap of 500%

However, Scrappers can critical, which gives them a 2X modifier, meaning scrappers can turn in 500x2% damage... which means an impressive 1000% damage increase.

This creates the teaming situation where Scrappers can easily out-damage brutes. In practical effect, Scrappers gain a larger benefit from Damage Buffs because of their Critical Capability.

The only class that can do more damage than a Scrapper is the Stalker, which has the best burst DPS... however that DPS is all-front-loaded due to Assassin's strike.

Right now the Archtypes largely line up as:

Stalkers: highest burst dps - front loaded, lowest survivability
Scrappers: highest sustained dps - average delivery, average survivability
Brutes: High Sustained DPS - ramped delivery, higher survivability
Tanks: Medium Sustained DPS - average delivery, highest survivability

To directly answer the question you did not ask, no, a Tanker's Bruise effect is not enough to make up the single target damage difference compared to the other archetypes.

Originally Posted by PapaSlade Rangle's right....this is fun.

Well, Mace does a combination of Stuns and knockdowns. Whirling Mace and Clobber do the stunning. Crowd Control, and Jawbreaker do the knockdowns.

Another bit of history, War Mace attacks used to do knockback level knockdown. Which made it quite incompatable with some secondaries that rely on melee proximity for defense, tohit,..ie Invul. It was quite a challenge to be an Invul/WM tank from issue 4 (when ED was implemented, I believe, up until WM got its buff (around issue 12, I think)

Shatter also does knockdown; all the Mace attacks other than the three KD/KU attacks have a chance to stun, though it's a relatively low chance in the T1 and T2 attacks.

Some other differences are that Mace's highest damaging attack (Clobber) does significantly more damage than Axe's highest damaging attack, (Cleave) though the Axe attack is a narrow cone and could conceivably hit more than one target.

The T8 and T9 attacks in the set are very similar, but the Axe attacks do slightly more damage than the Mace attacks. However, the T8 Mace attack's cone is twice as wide as the T8 Axe, and the T9 Mace attack can hit twice as many targets as the T9 Axe. (10 vs 5)

Yes, those were dark times. Not only did both Shatter and Crowd Control do KB--huge KB in Shatter's case--but Clobber was purely a stun attack like Stun in EM, instead of doing the superior damage it does now.

As someone who leveled a Mace tank to 50 pre-buff, Castle will always be my hero for doing such a good job buffing Mace.

HEY!

I said "Don't quote me"!!!!

Originally Posted by PapaSlade Rangle's right....this is fun.