CoV stress test weekend

I probably spent more time than I should have on the CoV beta this weekend, thanks to it being open both days. Luckily, I have a wonderful wife and she is still talking to me :).

The (short) results:

Brutes: This is where most of the old tank players, and many scrappers as well, will wind up. Brutes are just a ton of fun start to finish. The whole idea of "hulking out" - doing more damage the more you hit and get hit, just plays out very well. They do get the auto-hit aoe taunt that tanks have (but no multi-target punchvoke - they only auto taunt the single target they are attacking), but I'm not sure how many will take it... Playing a brute will get you killed more than you think, but you'll have a blast dying.

Corruptors: A very wide variety of builds are possible with the corruptors, and it is going to make for a complete grab bag of what you get when you invite one to your team (assuming you do random teams...). Do you get a gung go blaster with no buffs - or a buff oriented offender type? Somewhere in between? Fun stuff, lots of tough build decisions. /cold and /thermal both look to be great sets.

Dominators: Of all 5 archs, doms were the ones that I noticed my end bar the most on. Too early to say if it is a real problem or not - but doms definitely "feel" like their powers are a bit on the end heavy side. I was able to find ways to play with the other 4 archs where I had no downtime at all in a full group, yet on my dom (ice/thorn) I was very frequently ooe. Getting arctic air probably didn't help that :P. Overall though, going to be very interesting having a pet on a damage dealer, and having raw damage with control. Nevermind that with containment some controllers can do very impressive damage...

Masterminds: I've decided that I'm done testing masterminds, I have a good idea of how they will play (for me), and don't see the devs making any major changes anytime soon. My main suggestion/want was to get a "real" archetype power with a noticeable effect, as opposed to supremacy, which is very much in the background in the same way as punchvoke is for a tank - you just don't notice it (although the tank's is very noticeable in a group). It seems that all our pet dmg/acc was balanced entirely with supremacy in mind, so it doesn't feel like any kind of bonus at all, but just rather what we should have in the first place.
I think a lot of people will be dissapointed with the power level/kill speed of masterminds in general - don't get your hopes up too high - think defender (not offender!) killing speed with the survivability of a defense focused scrapper. I know that sounds weird, but that is about how I felt. The pets do very little damage, but it adds up over time and is done in a way that allows you a great deal of safety. However - if your pets and resummons die, you are pretty much toast.
Bottom Line - play a mastermind if you are happy having a low degree of direct involvement in a fight, but really adore the concept of micromanaging pets. I was really excited about them to start, and I will still have 1 of each primary, but my excitement has cooled a little after seeing the mid 20s game.

Stalkers: They feel to me like the blasters of CoV - the glass cannons if you will. Why? Because they specialize in a melee range snipe that can sometimes one shot (or one-two) a boss. Some sets have had aoes removed (claws - spin) and others have none at all (energy - no whirling hands), so for the most part stalkers are single target based. I really do wonder why they left spines in though, it doesn't fit very well - I'm guessing they just didn't have anything else ready. Definitely play your stalker through to 8 or 10 before you give up on them - they really don't blossom until you see build up + assassin strike in action. Plus, having full stealth with no movemen penalty at level 1 is incredibly handy.