Which Assault Hybrid?

I know there are a couple of general thread going on about this, most specifically the one in the AT and Powers --> General Discussion, here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=290488

But, since Brutes have the Fury mechanic, which affects our dmg cap, and I am admittedly a noob when it comes to understanding the numbers behind it, I wanted to ask here what some of you are choosing as your Hybrid Tree if you are going Assault.

My thinking is that if you are ever close to the dmg cap and/or you have slow attacks that will make it difficult to maintain stacks, that the Doublehit tree would be more effective. If you are a fast-attacking set that doesn't approach the dmg cap, the +DMG boost tree would be better.

I am Staff/Ela, so I am guessing the +DMG tree will be more effective (although I am currently using the Doublehit one, because I find it more interesting). Before I go T4, though, I want to figure out if I am leaving a lot of dmg on the table because of my choice.

Does Fury put most Brutes close to our DMG cap, or no?

I haven't delved into the math yet but I tend to assume that if it is balanced for other ATs without the extreme self damage buffage brutes get, likely double hit would be the best choice for brutes (because if the +dam option was balanced for brutes, it'd be by far the best option on other ATs). The damage cap shouldn't be too relevant to this discussion, or so I would think.

Of course, even then one question remains - is it balanced at all for "normal" ATs? Rebirth +regen vs Rebirth +maxHP has already shown us the devs are apparently fine with massive performance gaps between two branches of the same incarnate tree...

Does doublehit (and/or all procs, I guess) use base recharge or actual recharge for its calculations?

Base recharge. Come i24, PPM mechanics are changing somewhat (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=288581), so that will affect the chance for doublehit to go off, but the damage when it does go off shouldn't be affected by that. I wouldn't be surprised if doublehit's damage formula is at some point also, though, because it really is weird how it double-dips on recharge and aoefactor.

But apparently double-hit doesn't work on powers with 20sec or greater recharge -- specifically KO Blow and Crushing Uppercut. Or was that a bug that got fixed? Someone (Butane?) noticed it right before Live and pointed out it seemed deliberately coded to prevent KO Blow and CU from benefiting from double-hit.

Anyone confirm?

Doublehit intentionally caps recharge at 20 seconds for its damage calculation, which means powers like KOB and CU don't gain the full benefit of their 25-second recharge times. That's not the same as doublehit not working at all, though. Unless there's a separate bug that isn't in the bug thread.

Doublehit for tankers is also being penalized by Gauntlet's AoE, much like PPM procs were, but hopefully that will be fixed in relatively short order, much like PPMs were.

So, there doesn't seem to a definitive answer to which Assault is better for a Brute? I've already got t4 Radial, but will also get t4 core if it's better.

From a related thread:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hopeling I've made a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...Gw4X2t4VzNvQUE I've entered the numbers for Titan Weapons and Broadsword already, but feel free to download a copy for your own use and add in whatever powers you want. Green cells are for entering power info; yellow cells are for adjusting Hybrid power parameters (which Hybrid powers you're comparing, how many stacks of Core's buff you have); red cells do the calculations and should be left alone. I haven't used Excel in like two years, so it's not very nice to look at, but it should do all the math correctly.

Note that I put in Scrapper numbers; Brutes will gain less benefit from Core, and thus are more likely to prefer Radial.

Since I'm still learning this whole assault mechanic and havent quite come to clarity on it yet:

A SS brute that uses Footstomp, Burn, Blazing Aura, Fireball, with KO Blow for mopup - what is the best Assault path to follow ?

I'm mainly unsure about how assault effects AoE powers - especially the double hit mechanic. Is the double hit effect on aoe's a massive damage boost to many targets ?

Thanks for any explanations and help.

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see below

Currently, Mids is erroneously applying ED to the buff from Core stacks, which will significantly affect your calculations. Codewalker has posted a workaround until it's fixed in the next version.

Even if the Core did slightly more damage, I would nod toward Radial simply because it converts things into Energy damage. For most Brute sets, thats a new damage type to what they are currently doing. (Exceptions would be EM and Elec)