Earth / Brick Revamp?

So I know I've mentioned it in other threads but they get lost...

So I was wondering if it is possible when Earth's revamp comes {{I hope is soon because it's needed}} if the Devs could link the blocking of your toon to Brick. So when I block, Brick will block. Right now he can get one-shot because he doesn't block against the one-hitters and instead just stands there and takes the damage. So maybe a bit more health and the ability to block.

Pet tanking is supposed to be a viable option for Earth but it's not really unless you over gear the content you're running with it. That kind of beats the purpose though....

I was also thinking... Maybe morph Brick and Crystal into one pet, that switches how it acts depending on what role you are in. Not sure why Crystal has Earth's second cleanse move... That should be on Brick since he is our Tanking pet, not Crystal.

With the extra spot you could add in a shield for Earth. One that looks like how Reinforce does when you cast it to protect a group member, they get this rocky armor on their shoulders. That could be the look for an Earth shield that we would have in the free spot after Crystal and Brick are fused.

Second request is just a minor annoyance I thought to bring up... The first about Brick blocking is important to me. I know some don't agree or like Brick... But it's just my opinion and feelings towards it on how it could help. The reason I went Earth to start was for pet tanking... So it's sad to see it not as viable.

Agree with the brick-blocking. Also add some health, def, toughness to our Brick would be nice. Please Dev...... i want my Brick partner to last longer as i am in war.

I assume Brick scales with CR but I am curious to know how much health/defense scales. It's a shane we have to heal him ourselves.

I really wish you could see pet stats. I see no reason not to see them...

But ya, Brick scales with your PvE CR.

It would be nice to be able to tank a different way than Jackhammer x2 > Block > Jackhammer x2 > Block > Jackhammer x2 > Block ....



(I'm exaggerating a little, but the point has been made)

try this this helps me in the nexus.
brick, pull move, upheval, unstopable, gem shield, hardlight shield.
the trick to this loadout is to get the 50% to stack on the shield. So brick is just another body serves no purpose. But you need to hit upheval or whatever aftershock before you use shield this is better than any ice shield believe me, With white sockets and 50% damage shift on top ofshield and block, breaks down 3 times before the damage even gets to you so damage is minimal. the cast times for aftershocks are to long but when you get this rotation down "for me" is the best i found so far

See, I would, but I have a peeve against Hard Light Shield that I have no explanation for. And if I'm using Brick, I don't want him to be just "another body", I want him to hold his own. That's why I support the Brick revamp.

I'm with you dude. Damage absorb should work together with damage-shif using pet. So that Brick don't die easily. The Brick can last longer if we transfer less damage to him. Thats the main idea.

agreed here, But for now untill such happens we need to adapt to what works and what will in turn get you the win. brick will still taunt enemies if your health is low and if you really want you can use damage shift instead of aftershock, but i have found brick tanking is harder in the new raids leaves you open to long during recast to get brick up and damage shift in rotation

That's why I stick to memorizing the attack patterns of my enemies, and only acting in the times between attacks. During attacks, I'm always blocking, whether I can survive the volley or not. Less healing used by the healer means the power dumps by the controller are going to the DPS. Better to just easily take 200 while blocking than try to withstand 800 just to perform a power.

I take a rediculously low amount of damage while blocking (1600 drops to 400, it's great!) so I use that. Even after using Aftershocks and Gemstone shield, Batman still can hit me for 400, 400, 800 (close estimates) with his basic combo. Blocking it's literally a fourth of the damage. All I do is Block while getting hit, and alternate between Jackhammer and Gemstone in the downtime between Batman's attacks (so it looks like: Block attacks > Combo clipped with Jackhammer w/ Aftershock x1 > Block attacks > Combo clipped with Gemstone x1 > Block attacks > repeat until WIN).

Unless Brick Tanking can provide the 50% Absorption AND cut my damage intake by 3/4s like Aftershock/Blocking does, then it'll be worthless.

there is more than 1 way to use all of the tanks, The brick is awsome and fun but in reality it is, guess you can say not up to par.
I am working with earth now to find out which loadout/ rotation is the absolutly the best for defence brick included or not

Sounds good to me. Players will always find a way, as the saying goes. Still, as Alpha is carrying on, that doesn't mean it isn't an issue that should be put off until a revamp. Sure, Earth seems to work okay right now, but it seems really one-dimensional; and with one of its major advertised method of tanking being unusable as intended, I'm hoping Brick is at least in the top 5 of the Devs' to-do list. Whether we the players find work-arounds or not, broken mechanics are still broken mechanics, and in this instance it's not like some random Fire power in the middle of the tree being slightly worse than it was; this is an entire method of Tanking that just doesn't work.

I don't want to sound like I'm belittling your accomplishments, and I hope I've never come across that way, and in fact it's pretty amazing all the different power combos you've come up with to make Brick work with current limitations. Quite honestly, I'm impressed. But still, to be working as originally intended, Pet Tanking needs a rework bad.

My easy solution for Brick tanking would be to raise our tank buff to 33%. This would give us near 50% absorption as a constant and would give a decrease to amt of damage shifted to Brick. We would then have the luxury of deciding between Jacks or Brick for playstyle. This is a small trade-off because we must use at least two spots on our loadout for Brick and we give up the potential for juggling adds with Jacks.

The absolute best combo is jackhammer with 1 aftershock and gemshield plus blocking. Nothing will reduce tue damage any more. However it was nice using brick last night and having him there when a healer went down and my health GRADUALLY dropped below 40%. He did taunt lex but ALWAYS ended up dying causing me to recast in which I would have to drink a soda hit gemshield then recast to stay alive while doing so. He works and damageshift is transferring enough damage but ONLY when brick is only reviving the damage transferred to him. 25% of the damage in these raids is like 100% of the damage on the t4 raids lol so unless brick can solo tank a t4 he isn't able to quarter tank the damage in this one. They need to give him a shield like robot sidekick that he uses when taunting it when his health drops below a certain amount as well as give him some more health. Damage shift also needs another use besides its inital cast. To warrant it taking a space on the loadout. Ices power that grants 10% control resistance is an air juggle and shield, fires is immolation which damages enemies and lights them on fire when hit so damage shift deserves to have something more than just a one time use.

i do agree here completly

The devs need to take a look at these earth forums i see some seriously awsome ideas here that would bring brick to the forefront

You got the same idea as mine. Damage absorb & damage shif should work together as earth tank mechanic. This way we will transfer less damage to brick, thus increase the survivility of the brick when we transfer damge to it. And one more thing, keep brick fly behind us 24/7 so that he not wondering around and die in 1 shot hit. Plus, make brick block when you block because there is connection between you amd brick when you activate damage-shif

This is a great combo but i cant justify jackhammer when upheval does the trick. This is an extra power point for say hardlight shield or something else. Brick is good but i keep him up not using damage shift. last night i tried
reinforce ( to save groupmates) epicenter, upheval, unstoppable, gemstone, hardlight shield. was very effective. I also used cc trinkit for the shields and the consumable shield was a beast.

My suggestion would be to buff or change the totem in retrospec to Brick. Totem barely heals Brick at all! Maybe totem could be like a super-heal, or extra-defense, or immune to area-of-effect damage for Brick when it's out, that would keep him alive when not directly being attacked.

I think this would be a very good idea, but I also think this should be added for other pets, if it's added for earth pets. Trust me, if not everyone will cry because of it.

But another question is how will this work in PvP? Would the pet be able to block against combos?