Nemu

As adults we wage war against our greatest archenemy - time. This is a good way to maximize what you want to get out of this game with the time that you have. I think it's great that you took the initiative and did something about your situation to achieve the outcome that you wanted. I can not say the same for the scores more that not only depend on, but demand the generosity of others. I have no doubt that since you took the initiative to change your financial outcome, you'll also have the initiative to do the work and accomplish other things in this game if they compel you. You can make a fire farmer and self level in AE from 1-50+ without begging to sit on farms. It's all a matter of tuning your difficulty settings, start low and crank it up as you level, get more slots, get better enhancements. Another recommendation is to create an alt account. Make that your farming account. I have exactly 1 character on my alt account and I only use it to fire farm. I don't power level every character on my main account that I make, but it's nice to have the option to help a few select combos that don't play as well early game past those hurdles so you can get more fun out of your time.

Good breakdown but what happens when you add Kurt Angle to the mix?

Harsh words but there's truth in what @Zect is saying. It takes some awareness of your goals and what those goals mean to make out whether a build you see/copy aligns with your goals or not. Not everyone has the knowledge built up over years of playing the game to see synergies/holes/playstyles/other requirements to make a build work, and the mere existence of builds posted on the forums don't automatically make those builds "good" for YOU. Defining goals is the first step, and the more specific you are about your goal the better - that includes playstyle preferences, travel preferences, pet powers, etc... Anything other than "I want to be unkillable." or "I want to max out" (WTF does max out mean? you've given your audience nothing to work with with that statement) There are a lot of people that will sacrifice a lot of offense to make "unkillable" builds. The last time I checked you don't get xp/loot from being unkillable, you get those from being able to kill stuff too. And you can't do that if you hit like a kitten. Joke - Don't let tanker players build offensive ATs, they'll try to cram every resist and def bonus into that AT. Even seen a tank player build a blaster? That's comedy. I wish more people took a more analytical approach to making builds by asking the following questions: What can I expect with this combo? How does it play? This is my budget, what can I get out of this? Are there any synergies I can take advantage of? Are there any holes I really need to address? What am I potentially giving up to reach my goals? Any of those questions are magnitudes better than "is this build good?" because the former list anchor the questions to be about YOU, and you get less chances of some rando chiming in about how their build xyz is ubercakes and can solo LRSF with a mids link with no other context. Watch for posters/builders that explain what they do and more importantly why. Those are the ones with enough emotional intelligence to understand that posting in build help is not about flexing their build but to help the requester understand the build. Your chances of getting a build specific to your own goals and needs is much higher with those folks. Onto your build: 1 - Fire Armor needs recharge first and foremost. Healing flames is a cornerstone of fire armor survival. You gave up a lot of recharge focusing on defense and your build doesn't have knockback/knock down powers to take advantage of Force Feedback procs to offset that lack of global recharge bonuses. Your defenses will fail you, your primary doesn't have enough reliable mitigation(specifically AoE mitigation, you can stun a single target but it's that target's buddies that are going to kill you), and at that point healing flames is the only constant that can carry you through a fight. 2 - Fire armor also need a good deal of slow resistance, again, because of healing flames. If you can't spam it and your defenses are stripped and your recharge is neutered by slows, you are dead. 3 - EM is a bit too single target to operate fire farms efficiently regardless of how you supplement it with weak APP AoEs, you are better off just running regular KM ITFs/craft/convert if you want to make inf. 4 - Inefficient slotting: The 6th slot in Fire Shield does nothing for you since you already have capped fire resist. 6 slotting build up gets you less S/L defense than 2 slotting it with rectified reticle. I don't understand the rationale behind energy transfer. It doesn't cost end, it's also not autohit and you skipped ACC slotting in the power 5th slot in combat jumping gives you very little benefit. 2% damage bonus is negligible. Speaking of hitting stuff, it's a good place to put a kismet unique Sprinkling in various psi resistance IOs -see my joke about tankers. Your psi resistance is STILL pitiful, and you'll be better off dedicating those slots to more recharge/offense. In general I see a lot of wasted slots in 6 slotting powers with sets that don't give you fire/cold defense if fire farms is your goal. If general content is your goal there is additional wasted slotting in all the 6 piece winter sets that contribute to Fire/Cold defense, that 6th slot is not needed, You could use more LOTG 7.5 in your defense powers, hide for example. Recharge is good for fire armor and also speeds up total focus recharge to let you build focus. 5 - Assault doesn't do as much as you think it does, I'd rather get tactics or focused accuracy to deal with blinds and in case of the latter, ACC debuffs. 6 - Drop body mastery if you want to do more damage and get more meaningful set bonuses from the slots you potentially save. 7 - Agility does little for you defense wise, the defense boost from pool defense powers enhanced over ED is tiny. The primary reason people choose fire armor is more damage via burn, I would lean into doing damage more as the overall build direction and see this combo more like a melee blaster with mez protection. Dance and weave in and out of combat and kill stuff before they kill you, because dead things don't fight back.

In this thread 4th post.

You should really look at the build I posted. It checks all your boxes based on your initial ask. Let's compare and contrast: Your last build, with a 6th set of +10% global recharge by the way. The build I posted half a year ago: Your Freeze Ray: My Freeze Ray, without any recharge slotting Your hasten: My Hasten: All that recharge gets neutered with just a few -recharge debuffs. Your -recharge debuff resistance: Mine: Where's your heart at? Do you really want to do the thing you said you want to do or do you just want to hover blast with range defense covering your survival? If you noticed that my Freeze ray has lower chance to hit against +4s you are correct, assuming you are on teams all the time there are buffs and debuffs that can make up for that, but if you want to make sure you stay above 95% to hit with those powers you can replace the DAM IO with a Nucleus Hami-O, drop grant invis and pick up tactics. Hasten will drop to 118s (oh Noes!) and you will still do almost 2x the damage on freeze ray compared to your build. I'll reiterate, building for recharge for the sake of just recharge is wasting the opportunity to find other things that synergizes with that game plan. Nowadays if recharge is my goal I'll find a way to proc monster at least 1 power, if not more, to squeeze more damage in and get the most benefit out of having high recharge.

Pretty F* if your name is F* McF*son

I took Musc for more damage and some end drain synergy. Power sink helps refill your end when you are surrounded by mobs and that when you end really starts to tank with whirlwind on. Otherwise I use power sink to drain end from problem mobs as another way to mitigate damage.

You can do both. The game has warped to a more damage oriented meta, but that doesn't mean that you need to sacrifice the conventional wisdom about slotting controllers back in the days to do damage today. Storm alone will take care of damage. To begin there are a few things you need to vet out: Playstyle/range (you solo a lot, want more control which is fine, but what about where you want to execute the game plan? at range or within melee range where arctic air can do its thing?) Theme, if any (check) The former will dictate a lot of your survival loadout, the latter will dictate the tools that you have to work with. Arctic air is set defining so we are going to build around that. Survival means you need to be able to stay alive while in the thick of mobs. There are a few ways to accomplish this: 1 - Leverage your toolkit to soft/hard control mobs around you. Storm is especially good at creating controlled chaos and ice is no slouch either, slows really mess with mob AI 2 - Build up defenses with epic armors/set bonuses. 3 - Get teammates to buff you. Monitoring your in game stats can help you make tactical decisions about how to alter your playstyle. 4 - Inspirations. On defense the conventional wisdom is S/L will cover a lot. and most people softcap that for builds that stay in melee and call it a day. I challenge that. Most people worry about the critters in their face so they think melee def/ or S/L is the most important for squishy builds that stay in melee. I think about it this way: if all you got is melee defense then you are not using your tools, and smart people use the tools in their toolkit and interact with those critters in their zone of interaction to mitigate melee damage. What they CAN NOT interact with are those outside of their zone of interaction shooting at them, sometimes with nasty debuffs. Range defense covers that entire vector regardless of damage type. So I tend to build for both S/L defense AND range defense for squishies that favor melee range. It's time to consider synergies with the pairing, there's not a whole lot but that's ok. You could make a case for hurricane as a positioning tool to push stuff into your patches. I've not seen people use that tactic too much nowadays but the rare opportunity may present itself where you can actually take advantage of that. So the game plan with this combo is to stand around in melee range to confuse/slow mobs and then drop lightning bolts/tornadoes/ice storm on them. We also need to consider the major holes in the build that will prevent you from executing your game plan: 1 - It's an end hog. Arctic air is an end hog, Freezing rain, tornado and Lightning storm are all end hogs, all the toggles will suck you dry. Hasten doesn't help either even though it's highly desirable for controllers in general and especially for storm. Solution - This is a build that's going to depend on recovery serums leveling up and on cardiac Alpha for incarnate. 2 - Mezzes can temporarily shut off arctic air. Solution - The rest of your toolkit can create controlled chaos to keep things busy, you have defenses to reduce chances of mezzes landing, and finally clarion/break frees 3 - General survival in melee range Solution - Covered that already above. So the build goals are the following: 1 - S/L and Range defense 2 - Recharge 3 - Enough tools to control stuff On recharge, a single well placed force feedback +rech proc is worth more than a whole set of purples. Don't miss the forest for the trees and solely focus on recharge set bonuses via purples and miss out on slotting FF procs. I'll add a 4th: Slow resistance. All the recharge in the world means nothing if you are slapped with -100% recharge and there are mobs that will do that. Part of your survival relies on your ability to fire off ice slick/tornado and the like and those have a fairly long recharge. You don't need 100% slow resistance, there are temp base buffs and dayjobs that will grant you some, but I'd recommend a healthy amount of it with any high budget build. Keeping with your epic/pool selections this is what I came up with: Veronica Frost (Ice Control - Storm Summoning).mbd If you want a more in depth breakdown of build optimization read through this thread

I did recommend you ask for help here. I'll look at this build more closely tomorrow. Are you going Ice/Storm/Cold for theme or is the epic/patron pool flexible? Also, what are you looking to accomplish with this character/build? Based on slotting I'm also assuming budget isn't an issue?

Whirlwind gets a bad rap. It's time to bring Cyclone Awareness to the masses. Premise: I wanna use whirlwind, I wanna storm blast, I wanna do something thematic. What rhymes with Storm? You guessed it Cyclone! What else does storm haz? Electricity What else? It's cold! So that's the theme - Storm/Elec/Cold mastery blaster with whirlwind. Synergies: Whirlwind, force of thunder, thunder strike all work together to keep stuff knocked down in storm cell, they all have FF +rech to accelerate my global recharge. Whirlwind is an end hog. Blaster sustains really help here, hence me picking the blaster AT instead of corruptors where I think storm blast can really benefit from scourge. Elec manip also has power sink, so that further solidified my pick for both theme and synergy. Storm shines in content with ambushes or anything with adds. Cat5 lacks the immediacy of most nukes with its slow build up but it lingers, so you can herd mobs into the storm. Anyway mission accomplished. I've built a walking cyclone that pew pews lightning. Here's the build. It's not softcapped, so use lucks as you see fit so you can keep spreading cyclone awareness. Cyclone Panda - Blaster (Storm Blast - Electricity Manipulation).mbd

Be a cool person and pair staff with fire armor. Double build up burn crit is hot.

Disagree. EF helps immobilize AVs, FOT is the quickest recharging area control of all blaster T8s and it can be used in conjunction with thunder strike to keep mobs knocked down around you. The fact that both TS and FoT has a chance to also stun is a bonus. Unlike other form of low mag hard control that other blaster T8s feature, knock down doesn't care about critter rank. If you ever lived a melee blaster life at all you'd appreciate how useful that form of mitigation can be in helping you face tank content. It has a lot of synergy with storm because the knockdowns keep stuff in storm cell. I went all in on theme and took whirlwind, the game plan is to use the knockdowns to keep stuff on their butts around me and to trigger FF procs so I can storm more. This is what I'm running with. I have enough softcap melee blasters on my roster so I went a different direction and went all in on theme: This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 49 Technology Blaster Primary Power Set: Dark Blast Secondary Power Set: Electricity Manipulation Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Cold Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Gloom (A) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage (3) Superior Defiant Barrage - Damage/RechargeTime (3) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (5) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (7) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (7) Superior Defiant Barrage - RechargeTime/+Status Level 1: Charged Brawl (A) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage (9) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance (9) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (11) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (11) Superior Blistering Cold - Recharge/Chance for Hold Level 2: Electric Fence (A) Empty Level 4: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (5) Kismet - Accuracy +6% (48) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%) Level 6: Umbral Torrent (A) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage (48) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (48) Bombardment - Chance for Fire Damage (49) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 8: Aim (A) Rectified Reticle - To Hit Buff/Recharge (47) Rectified Reticle - Increased Perception (47) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up Level 10: Super Speed (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (40) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) Level 12: Moonbeam (A) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Damage (13) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance (13) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Interrupt/Range (15) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (17) Sting of the Manticore - Chance of Damage(Toxic) Level 14: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (15) Recharge Reduction IO Level 16: Thunder Strike (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage (17) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (37) Multi-Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (37) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown (37) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 18: Tenebrous Tentacles (A) Ragnarok - Damage (19) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (19) Ragnarok - Recharge/Accuracy (36) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance (36) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown Level 20: Dynamo (A) Preemptive Optimization - Accuracy/Recharge (21) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Endurance (21) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Recharge (23) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Accuracy/Endurance (23) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge (25) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Endurance/Recharge Level 22: Life Drain (A) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage (40) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (40) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (43) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (45) Superior Winter's Bite - Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge Level 24: Power Sink (A) Preemptive Optimization - Accuracy/Recharge (25) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Endurance (27) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Recharge (27) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Accuracy/Endurance (29) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge (29) Preemptive Optimization - EndMod/Endurance/Recharge Level 26: Blackstar (A) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage (33) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Damage/Recharge (34) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (34) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (34) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (36) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Recharge/Chance for Fire Damage Level 28: Force of Thunder (A) Absolute Amazement - Stun/Recharge/Accuracy (31) Absolute Amazement - Recharge/Accuracy (31) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown (31) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 30: Whirlwind (A) Endurance Reduction IO (33) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown (33) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 32: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (39) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance (39) Shield Wall - Defense (39) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) Level 35: Snow Storm (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 38: Tactics (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 41: Frozen Armor (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (42) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (42) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (42) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (43) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage (43) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP Level 44: Shocking Grasp (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage (45) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (45) Neuronic Shutdown - Chance of Damage(Psionic) (46) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic) (46) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage (46) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative) Level 47: Build Up (A) Recharge Reduction IO Level 49: Vengeance (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Defiance Level 1: Sprint | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1638;722;1444;HEX;| |78DA7594494F144114C75F6F220388E30CFB3A080A0C34485CAE469644191222DEB| |133D3CE3434D39DA149E4037857A33151C0ABEBCDF805BC6AD4E84D6F9E15130F8A| |4BDAD7FDEA494D904ABAFBD7F596FA57BDAA9ABB3A55FFEA65EE2C280D93AEB5BAB| |A780EDF815D495CB2F3A5B2E77AC575885A0D3E6DC2B678D12A17ED8239655596C9| |7F902D0B6BBEEF550273DAB5F341C5C93BC1FAE29C5576FC35D70A1CAF0CF5F39EE| |79A39DBF29D723111FF2CF8B65D68E4FE825D592D397E5DFC3FE33AC552909CF69D| |BC39E9B905CC150DB3DE8A6A32F838697C29C02D34F0A5039CD04105854125D0412| |338003A83416043751AECBD4E96837083E12641026E31DC2628540543883F213668| |C635D3A4ACAA064D8A90F2073BBA7418830E2DEE59C28918BB5942CD8067947D0C9| |E33A8460CE3704D8D61391DD5653748AD810DB4A474306193E121F91E4531B59248| |A5163E90E5387C2470315D9DB29B4EAF83D7105BEAE10DC35B8243F08EE030BC27E| |8C3011AA4D92A0D90655F014BF8699434E88DB0A18B2C5B04FD1080804FDC2366BB| |82F292B2BC244C90E5089C643825660BA719CE105CC19094BC5352F09D0648C30F8| |61D8266F8C9F08BA0157E137828A249DE294DF04017CBF888E131C1303C211881A7| |04CB18D2A2FCAB5868B4B0885616D1CE22DA5944278BE864113E8A689356C26883B| |BB48D7AE11E410636183619B634B124F7091C8CED90F75C07E468B1BA618E4154A1| |9BABD08F65EE92F75C577C10E3B1856F2FFB26D1B7475A2CAD870FC03198D1045C6| |0982528E2A74F3E4D7D3C400AD30D48E960802D0EC60CCAC51DE48186A2F58E4EDA| |104C68A2673B825A2CCF374DD46987C0C5D8AC34B49185CB10FB8EC4873C068BF28| |DC20A8D300AE75501598212BA9AF20C4C3E00699CC1B86C19679D9D3AC82D8C9EE8| |0EC9E8D5375398DBC7715EFFFF25F439519D80FDB7F7F6676815BEEC13F1756FFF1| |D9AF08BE1EABB259C1DAE9E67F8173ED9DA96| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Gloom = Hailstones Aim = Intensify Umbral Torrent = Storm Cell Moonbeam = Direct Strike Tenebrous Tentacles = Chain Lightning Life Drain = Cloudburst Blackstar = Cat 5

SS is pretty sucky at lower levels especially if you follow an end game build which skips either jab or punch and even haymaker which means you'll only have 1 attack until level 20. There's definitely a case for taking all the attacks for leveling and then respec them out as your build matures with this powerset. For lower level xp the trick is to run story arcs and focus on mission completion and story arc completion bonuses. Killing everything is the more inefficient way to level up through arcs and unless you are gunning for mob defeat badges you can get through a lot of story arcs, earn lots of xp and merits without a heavy focus on fighting.

It's a terrible build. Not because of the concept but because you didn't invest enough into doing damage with whatever tools you have left. Without your primary your ability to kill things will greatly depend on trip mine, taser, and gun drone. I would find ways to do more damage from pools and leverage procs if at all possible. Since you are skipping all your primary it gives you a great excuse to explore pool options other than fighting. And even after you took fighting/stealth your def is only at 25%, I'd see a reason to take those two if your goal is to hit 32.5% or softcap but if you aren't going to get there, there are more fun powers to take. Here's what I came up with: This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 49 Technology Blaster Primary Power Set: Dark Blast Secondary Power Set: Devices Power Pool: Teleportation Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Experimentation Ancillary Pool: Force Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Gloom Hamidon Origin:Nucleolus Exposure Level 1: Toxic Web Grenade (A) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage (7) Superior Defiant Barrage - Damage/RechargeTime (7) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (9) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (11) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (11) Superior Defiant Barrage - RechargeTime/+Status Level 2: Caltrops (A) Ice Mistral's Torment - Chance for Cold Damage (3) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing) (3) Bombardment - Chance for Fire Damage (5) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy) (5) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff Level 4: Teleport Target (A) Accuracy IO Level 6: Taser (A) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage (13) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Damage/Recharge (15) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (15) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (17) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (17) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Recharge/Chance for Fire Damage Level 8: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (9) Kismet - Accuracy +6% Level 10: Targeting Drone Hamidon Origin:Cytoskeleton Exposure Level 12: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (13) Recharge Reduction IO Level 14: Super Speed (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (19) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) Level 16: Smoke Grenade (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff (43) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance (45) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge (45) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance Level 18: Combat Teleport (A) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%) Level 20: Field Operative (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (21) Synapse's Shock - EndMod (21) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Recharge (23) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Increased Run Speed (23) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Rechage (29) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Accuracy/Endurance Level 22: Fold Space (A) Accuracy IO (37) Recharge Reduction IO Level 24: Trip Mine (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage (25) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (25) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage (27) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown (27) Fury of the Gladiator - Chance for Res Debuff (29) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 26: Toxic Dart (A) Apocalypse - Damage (39) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge (39) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (40) Apocalypse - Recharge/Accuracy (40) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance Level 28: Time Bomb (A) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (34) Eradication - Damage/Recharge (34) Eradication - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (36) Multi-Strike - Damage/Recharge (37) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown (37) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 30: Gun Drone (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge (31) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage (31) Expedient Reinforcement - Damage/Endurance (31) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge (34) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets Level 32: Whirlwind (A) Endurance Reduction IO (33) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown (33) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 35: Repulsion Field (A) Endurance Reduction IO (36) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown (36) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 38: Temp Invulnerability (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (39) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (45) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (46) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (46) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP Level 41: Repulsion Bomb (A) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (42) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage (42) Bombardment - Chance for Fire Damage (42) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy) (43) Superior Frozen Blast - Damage/Endurance (43) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 44: Experimental Injection (A) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb Level 47: Corrosive Vial (A) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage (47) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy) (47) Superior Frozen Blast - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (48) Bombardment - Chance for Fire Damage (48) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff (49) Superior Frozen Blast - Recharge/Chance for Immobilize Level 49: Personal Force Field (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Defiance Level 1: Sprint | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1619;725;1450;HEX;| |78DA75944B4F135114C7FFD3B923525EF27E0BA53C0B0C60E24EA351D0C48012604| |F9A32A98DB5D3949AC0CA27FA114C1471E746598AE8CEB8954FA01BE342C3ABA8B8| |7061EA9939F7CAAD864966E677CFFB9EFB9858182DDD783F7E1646D9F964747E7EF| |61C7DB34E2638E3C4AEA6DCA41B5F84F714D1DB2875B353D154DC99B347A3996B6C| |5FAF34D337D2693793B52F46E7E24E761E5593AE9BB4679CA4E389A3D9849B2AF54| |5E34E349D48C583FE603AED3873353E8E2DA49D4CE2BA9362E3AAB17422665F7033| |316776C24FB1D84095B4D39BA881FEE44DE06B006815E8C108C188C020064C1F867| |08A4C84899B9EA971E0647962DFE4080C050186A3301982100A2C865B5E142D8C30| |506EF99A009E197E1101045822B00E095FB89A2E6AA6A979C344139BDCA69FA5976| |7E111FB94E231433996153C61388615054F19EA28419116C62842AD21E7F41B7E79| |77E857ACD7508C93DCA20E722ED19D4BD00F59838430999469AD37CAF0813B5E858| |F0C77495EA145312BB0C69A08D61906F04AC11B866E8A5BA9175589669ED13D1A56| |EB8DA95633AAC1A690B0CD50879C822D8616EC329875F0FDFE165EAB3ADFA9E6B64| |4BFFA83B5CD5BF55866E706AC2838CDF536E19329E18C29332DB1EA4A84CE8BBE43| |1A31202789410536430F86140C33DC279766684534639BF776085B0A7618C2C8789| |517D3143E0B391759C4036FADF5AEB522C79AE3D853F04DC1778676FC6008619FA1| |9396A54D6B49A08D74D256A66C57295F501F3A74DB0E651B56B66165BB4AB65D7A8| |FBAA8F3FE9CBA71C2945B63DF9447F9A7825F0CABB4037BF51EF5628D13F4619112| |547B20CF609F3A8311BC141264119769A1FAB582691FEC708229D2D8DA2EB76C6CB| |08FADC2110879C1C84C4378CBB987F19A55CF29DAB016860672EBB688C21BCC7BE9| |4148145E52F9F1430C27856E477283E53BC1C200CA3EF78F9C3064CA737B89063D0| |2BB87B8EEFD2F7FC8CD781729BC0CF27F003B69D45D| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Teleport target and fold space are great ways to teleport mobs into your minefield and your build is the perfect excuse to take those powers. You have 3 more attacks in the form of toxic dart, corrosive vial and repulsion bomb. Most of the long recharge powers are loaded with procs and there are plenty of force feedback procs to help them recharge faster, and that recharge bonus also helps trip mine, caltrops, time bomb and gun drone recharge faster.

Incarnates help patch your weaknesses and fire farms and regular content are two different circumstances that require different types of holes patched up. The alpha and destiny picks are game changers and the two that impact performance the most. There are no nasty debuffs in fire farms and softcap fire defense and hardcap resists is the baseline for survival. What you really need for a fire farm assuming those two are checked is damage, via faster recharging powers/procs, and making sure you don't run out of end spamming attacks. Ageless core ephiphany destiny single-handedly takes care of all these issues. Which means you can dedicate the rest of your incarnate choices to more damage. muscalature, degenerative, assault, Ion. Normal content has a lot more debuffs and hardmode sometimes require barrier for the rez. Which means you need more consistent ways to manage your endurance, as the build is an end hog without conserve power. Higher difficulty mobs can also be harder to hit. Vigor core alpha would be a good pick, it helps with acc, end redux and heal, if you are really sucking end then move to cardiac core. Ageless radial can be helpful against debuffs and barrier should be in your arsenal for hardmode. Degen is still useful, judgement, lore and hybrid is personal preference.

Since you wanted to use this as your fire farm build here's my tweak of it. The goal is to make the build suitable for general play as well as fire farms. Your original build was missing the other scrapper ATO, and I catalysed the ones you were using in the final build. Stone skin was also overslotted for res instead of a balance of def+res. For a build with no hasten it was also lacking slow resist to make sure you are not a sitting duck waiting for stuff to recharge when you get hit with recharge debuffs. This is the final build once you have all the expensive pieces in play. I reshuffled power picks so that you can have your basic defenses at softcap by level 30. This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Mutation Scrapper Primary Power Set: Radiation Melee Secondary Power Set: Stone Armor Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Concealment Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Radioactive Smash (A) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage (3) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Damage/Recharge (3) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (5) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (5) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (7) Superior Scrapper's Strike - Recharge/Critical Hit Bonus Level 1: Stone Skin (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (9) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance (9) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge (11) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance (11) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance (13) Red Fortune - Defense Level 2: Rock Armor (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 4: Combat Jumping (A) Defense Buff IO (7) Kismet - Accuracy +6% Level 6: Stealth (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance (34) Red Fortune - Defense Level 8: Radiation Siphon (A) Hecatomb - Damage (46) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (47) Hecatomb - Recharge/Accuracy (47) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance (48) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative) Level 10: Mud Pots (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage (21) Superior Avalanche - Damage/Endurance (23) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (23) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (25) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (25) Superior Avalanche - Recharge/Chance for Knockdown Level 12: Earth's Embrace (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal (13) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance (15) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime (15) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime (17) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance (17) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb Level 14: Super Jump (A) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%) Level 16: Rooted (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal (49) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance Level 18: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (19) Reactive Defenses - Defense (19) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (21) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage Level 20: Crystal Armor (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (33) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance (34) Red Fortune - Defense Level 22: Devastating Blow (A) Superior Critical Strikes - Accuracy/Damage (37) Superior Critical Strikes - Damage/RechargeTime (37) Superior Critical Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (37) Superior Critical Strikes - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (40) Superior Critical Strikes - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (42) Superior Critical Strikes - RechargeTime/+50% Crit Proc Level 24: Boxing (A) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (34) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Level 26: Atom Smasher (A) Armageddon - Damage (42) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (42) Armageddon - Recharge/Accuracy (43) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance (43) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage (43) Fury of the Gladiator - Chance for Res Debuff Level 28: Tough (A) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance (29) Aegis - Resistance (29) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge (36) Aegis - Endurance/Recharge (36) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge Level 30: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (31) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance (31) Red Fortune - Defense (31) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) Level 32: Irradiated Ground (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage (45) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Endurance (45) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Recharge (45) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (46) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (46) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff Level 35: Conserve Power (A) Recharge Reduction IO (48) Recharge Reduction IO Level 38: Brimstone Armor (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (39) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance (39) Aegis - Resistance/Recharge (39) Aegis - Resistance Level 41: Physical Perfection (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End (48) Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration Level 44: Minerals (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 47: Fusion (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up Level 49: Geode (A) Recharge Reduction IO Level 1: Brawl (A) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage (36) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance Level 1: Critical Hit Level 1: Sprint | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1654;732;1464;HEX;| |78DA6594594F135114C7FF6DA796420B96B20A944529A5955A502201DCD144A5099| |1C4D75AE80893D4B6692B5AFD122E0FBEB8BE98F8314C7C52D0AFA1C86282E21633| |9ECEE9291798E436BF3BE7DCB3FC7BEEC4EF4E795696A7CFC2567F219D2C1412B3F| |3F9642EA7E76BE2B78BC9A291CDA0FCB86805C49488EB695D8F5E4BA60CCB83F79D| |55F3947E53CF14F4E86C319BD113E7F2B7B2797866B2D974745A4FE68CCC82CFDA5| |CCE2C190563CE481BC5528398537ABEB068E4BCD6FE92B1B0582CFB5FCC19F3D1F3| |D95429114F168A7ABED446F5F4D11A1DA01F1BE4319DC07B0730ACC18E0F02CB0C1| |A56043E321CC02786EFE17D615A69DBA5A106319BE5528361865A8C0AD496C10D0F| |EA19B6288C4D0943219BD9B785047428169B0301546AF8072B93975C9CAA8B53E2F| |74AFC31EAD6A5B8682E04ED5694218418A2181408331C4384619BAA73AB4DBAF154| |B32C4D78C6D082E7022F18DAF052E015C30F0A53A786A9C36756D1832F0CF55815F| |8CA70106B02EB0CADD4AE178A565E74B0E527256850856890043149E0A3C33EC5C5| |E113A11BB1E1B0B46AC4264313B6F8D06F8AEB570ED9FD72A8679FD213A474B3DA6| |4336E70FB4790149813986718408A61103A83CDC583546DA5158FD8D28BC70C9394| |A97D67684C673BC6EC9528E302130C614C0A9C1238C3CD392853873A1A1D32B89D3| |8215099E0C3181138CE4083842E55CF2E912620D204449A00AE72CA71AABC5BD5A8| |1B4B3CD3477147A024700F9541BD2FF0965AF06B9875F055AE6AD487086472197ED| |13FD7AF96D78F11AE21285D06A5B9A0B4FB9AA62BA46A1FC213B911A7F972FFA1B8| |11F5BE46A4ED93D45B74E78B60D2E60D1FFE4B6762EA991857E946A7B6FB2342F84| |0ABE8FC90A17B8F8B39AD417D4C5A0ECE33A3A99ED6B7C4A407EBB5BB43D01A6295| |36F758284E2FAB740857E8FD4019AE737F1BFBA38438CAB73D162AA3225B0F56B50| |AACC9C06F0A6C33944B34DF85775F6DF38C1FD6DF537DF11F0C1BCB6A| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

The IOs that will give you the most bang for the buck when you are working your way up: Force Feedback +rech Get these before anything else, put it in heavy mallet, tremor and fault. For an SO or generic only build (starting out) Recharge is a premium. You can certainly work in the recovery IOs with remaining funds, but by getting more recharge you also indirectly help your end management via a faster recharging DNA siphon.

Unless you are running 4* hardmode ALL THE TIME you really don't need the kind of extreme high end survival that tanks provide. And despite all the "I want a 4* hardmode godmode insert your AT build" sentiment that I see on these forums I can tell you that not too many people run that stuff religiously. Because if they did they'd understand that those build can still die. That kind of content depends a lot more on buffs and end AVs are also DPS checks so you also need to balance survival with damage. It's nice to have the option but the option is overkill for the rest of game content. Coming from playing a lot of melee blasters I also understand the power of the alpha strike and active mitigation on top of builds that support that playstyle. Rad/SS is the poster child of a combo with so many proccable AoE powers that you can use those as your initial AoE alpha strike to take out all fodder and greatly reduce incoming damage. In that respect it's very much like a blaster leveraging a nuke to kill things dead before they can retaliate. That's what experience taught me and the mindset that I come from. And this is my Rad/SS build: This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Nuka Panda: Level 49 Science Tanker Primary Power Set: Radiation Armor Secondary Power Set: Super Strength Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Leviathan Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Alpha Barrier (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (48) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (49) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance Level 1: Jab (A) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage (11) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (13) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (15) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 2: Proton Armor (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (15) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (17) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP Level 4: Haymaker (A) Hecatomb - Damage (7) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge (7) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (9) Hecatomb - Recharge/Accuracy (9) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance (11) Superior Might of the Tanker - Recharge/Chance for +Res(All) Level 6: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (17) Kismet - Accuracy +6% (29) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%) (29) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (33) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage Level 8: Radiation Therapy (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage (34) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage (34) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage (34) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (37) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage (40) Theft of Essence - Chance for +Endurance Level 10: Fallout Shelter (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) Level 12: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (13) Recharge Reduction IO Level 14: Beta Decay (A) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff Level 16: Hand Clap (A) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage (40) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage (43) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown (45) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 18: Particle Shielding (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal (19) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance (19) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime (25) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime (27) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance (27) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb Level 20: Knockout Blow (A) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic) (21) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative) (21) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage (23) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative) (23) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage (25) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 22: Ground Zero (A) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage (45) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage (45) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage (46) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage (46) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (46) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage Level 24: Rage Hamidon Origin:Membrane Exposure Level 26: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 28: Tactics (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 30: Foot Stomp (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (31) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage (31) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage (31) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage (33) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage (33) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 32: Taunt (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage Level 35: Spirit Shark (A) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage (36) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (36) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (36) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative) (37) Gladiator's Javelin - Chance of Damage(Toxic) (37) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage Level 38: Boxing (A) Absolute Amazement - Stun (39) Absolute Amazement - Stun/Recharge (39) Absolute Amazement - Stun/Recharge/Accuracy (39) Absolute Amazement - Recharge/Accuracy (40) Absolute Amazement - Stun/Endurance Level 41: Arctic Breath (A) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing) (42) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage (42) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage (42) Bombardment - Chance for Fire Damage (43) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy) (43) Ice Mistral's Torment - Chance for Cold Damage Level 44: Tough (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% Level 47: Gamma Boost (A) Synapse's Shock - EndMod (47) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Rechage (47) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Recharge (48) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (48) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Accuracy/Endurance Level 49: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Sprint | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1619;754;1508;HEX;| |78DA75544B4F535110FEEEA320A5805079684B790894D27279C49589890F34515A4| |2AC89CBE6861E6903B44D5B8CC4B51BE3F34F1863FC012EDCB897ADF111576E94A7| |891AE3C2D4E99D73E000F124B7FDCECC9CF9BE9939F7A6EECC04D6DF26CFC3085C5| |A762B95CC0DB7B024CA8DE985BC282C08D0F2CFAD2EB9FDF36E21EB36D236C21199| |19714B142AC2B9EE66F36E355F2C642E94578AE59074A7C4B2104E7AB544385D2D8| |BC2623587C07CB1B8EC24855BCA1716FDDE265D1222DBA6EC5951AEE4F2A5166F7F| |25BF98AB5260F87229BFE05C2CAF564526296E135BCE2D64526EA52ACA6B3D24A98| |F9EFB51FA31A056CD047E5AC0948D09FC623089DF0C12FE83B1647DC71E3FDE3308| |E00383567C64F080080C9DC05004AD8AE038FE307088C0C27EACCFC288E9791A105| |56094C131C4141833A5884F9CA68BFAEDD3286D1F3A0DC9F4970CBD36C208716C18| |B30CFAF183C12312DC68ECD559F335A2C204039E3A0FEC985E9A01DC856719420FB| |BA2E8B03CD7434AD3A4894013A6396490E4356B1EA31971C8EE49F0980EB7681AD0| |8237C418A461508BDAF6FB59B3DAB0C69EA89239862F36CF0BF7D8F284D2B56B8CB| |E767C652D1DF8A6C006831E6C3238852D05B6194C117750E3F605B1C27D3D810C19| |A275501741A00B71E6EEC2555326966A9E929A4E5D4D271AB86709554202EB0CC65| |5A7C755A7C7D510A6494DB7DEA36E9CA57FDB423B35F8A4768D6823E71F244F481F| |4AA83ED4BAE70C65EBD56BEB558411451851EA224A543FCE99F2F2C8DA26284D9F9| |686DE3179E8262519D4AB1EC4731ED369BC50E0A50253A6BC5609CB6BE7909AB241| |150CEB777B18D7387604B30A24154899F252CE31F81C00467511A3786678A5C4D40| |C62AAF531983E799F5E418256B6582422AE37385E9F44FDF4EB18E0E8F21C6C704D| |0E3615D8B2E507665B811D0636E59DD4F34EAAC1856DE8AB567F6821661FFC24D59| |247032DAE67DED623C963708AED435F35957AF7A87D802FC2CE7F4E7C3F64274259| |BCA96A365517ECBD9AB1CBE01FBA90D1FF| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

I'll talk about survival first: It helps to have some prior understanding of cornerstones of survival out of the box for any given set. For rad armor the one power that stands out (besides your resist shields) that contributes a lot to survival is particle shielding. It gives you extra HP in the form of an absorb shield, increased regeneration and recovery. It also has a 120 second out of the box recharge timer. I would want to refresh that absorb shield as often as possible so I can continue to take hits. At this point I'll put a mental note to build for some recharge. A build with no defenses is still going to get hit, a lot. The absorb shield alone isn't going to cut it. How do you add further mitigation on top of the absorb? 2 approaches 1 - Get hit for less 2 - Get hit less Your build focuses on 1 so you already understand the value there, so I'm going to discuss 2. There are a few ways to get hit less: 1 - high defense 2 - active mitigation 3 - kill stuff fast first before they hurt you I have no doubt that you can cobble together a build with high defense, but all the investment that you can dedicate to defense can and will be stripped away very easily with a few debuffs. I'm going to discuss the other two. Active mitigation is another way to get hit for less, especially if they exist in powers you are going to be using anyway. Footstomp is a great example of a power that serves dual purposes, it's damage, but it's also mitigation. Knockdowns are very useful for the majority of game content. Unlike hard controls that require stacking mags against higher ranked critter, knock works against most critters regardless of rank and knocked down mobs usually takes around 3 seconds to get back up. Besides footstomp SS also has handclap, if you have enough recharge to spam footstomp and handclap you can keep mobs knocked down. Knocking them down instead of knocking them back keeps them in footstomp and other AoE range so you can not only mitigate damage but keep hurting them. That's another way to get hit less besides building for high defense. In addition, both powers can also slot a FF recharge proc, which not only help them recharge faster but also particle shielding. That's the first synergy I can leverage. (Note: If you wanted to explore more options for knockdown there are also procs that knockdown like the ragnorak or overwhelming force procs) Finally there's killing stuff before they kill you. This is a bit more advanced as it delves into the principals of procs. Rage is a cornerstone power of SS and it offers some very significant bonuses to your ability to do damage. It provides +to hit and +damage and can be easily double stacked with some recharge (recharge again, this seems like a theme for this combo). What this means is that instead of the traditional method of slotting attacks with ACC/Dam you could potentially leave that to Rage, and instead slot damage procs in some of your attacks to further increase your damage potential, with the added benefit that damage procs still do full damage during rage crash. The principal of proc monster build require the following: Enough global recharge to cycle proc powers frequently - you can do this via force feedback procs + global recharge bonuses Enough acc/to hit to ensure that proc powers can hit, since you are most likely not slotting much ACC into such powers - Rage can offset the lack of acc slotting Enough damage in proc powers to enhance their base damage - Rage takes care of this again Enough endurance management since you are not going to be slotting much end reduction in proc powers - Radiation Therapy and Particle shielding takes care of this Since recharge seems to be a recurring theme let's see what tools in your kit benefits from it: Rage Particle shielding Radiation therapy Ground zero All your attacks, especially the ones that can be loaded with procs You don't have to go full proc with your build, but you can leverage these synergies a bit more than your original build , which just went down the 90% resist to everything while skipping key powers and sacrificing other synergies route.

Skipping rage and knockout blow really hurts the build offensively. KO blow especially is not something that people skip. Ask yourself this: Besides building for 90% resists, what other tools in your kit helps you with survival? What do those tools need to be effective? You've shown that you understand stacking set bonuses. Level 2 of build making is spotting synergies and coming up with a game plan. Hint - not all game plans revolve around building for softcap defense or hardcap resists.

I'd double down on @Spaghetti Betty's approach and go ALL all out on offense/procs There are a few ways to handle survival 1 - kill stuff fast 2 - use soft/hard control tools at your disposal (knockdowns are super useful) 3 - cap resists/softcap defense This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Tanker Primary Power Set: Electric Armor Secondary Power Set: Super Strength Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Concealment Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Leviathan Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Charged Armor (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (3) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (5) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 1: Punch (A) Hecatomb - Damage (7) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge (7) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (45) Hecatomb - Recharge/Accuracy (46) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance Level 2: Conductive Shield (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (3) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (5) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 4: Kick (A) Empty Level 6: Static Shield (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (9) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (11) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (11) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime (49) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection Level 8: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (9) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) (40) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%) Level 10: Infiltration (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 12: Energize (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal (13) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance (13) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime (27) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime (27) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance (29) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb Level 14: Tough (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (15) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (15) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP Level 16: Cross Punch (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage (17) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (17) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (19) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage (19) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage (25) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 18: Lightning Reflexes (A) Run Speed IO Level 20: Knockout Blow (A) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative) (21) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage (21) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic) (23) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative) (23) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage (25) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 22: Power Sink (A) Synapse's Shock - EndMod (34) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Rechage (36) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Recharge (36) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (36) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Increased Run Speed (45) Synapse's Shock - Damage/Accuracy/Endurance Level 24: Rage (A) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge (39) Adjusted Targeting - Recharge (45) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge Level 26: Hand Clap (A) Absolute Amazement - Recharge/Accuracy (37) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage (40) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage (40) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown (43) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 28: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (29) Recharge Reduction IO Level 30: Foot Stomp (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (31) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage (31) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage (31) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage (34) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage (34) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 32: Lightning Field (A) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage (33) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (33) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (33) Superior Might of the Tanker - Recharge/Chance for +Res(All) (46) Superior Avalanche - Damage/Endurance (46) Superior Avalanche - Recharge/Chance for Knockdown Level 35: School of Sharks (A) Ragnarok - Damage (37) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge (37) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (47) Ragnarok - Recharge/Accuracy (47) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance Level 38: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (39) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (39) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage Level 41: Arctic Breath (A) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing) (42) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage (42) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage (42) Ice Mistral's Torment - Chance for Cold Damage (43) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy) (43) Bombardment - Chance for Fire Damage Level 44: Grounded (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (48) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance (48) Gladiator's Armor - End/Resist Level 47: Taunt (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage Level 49: Stealth (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Sprint | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1674;757;1514;HEX;| |78DA75944B4F135114C7FFF3288FD25291B7A5206F4AA5B488EE4C7C8009B14D483| |0C68D69863A9689A534D381485CBB73EFC6674CFC0C7E00DFCAD6C4D7CA8DF23451| |135DD5D33973E15AC224D3FEEE3DE79EF33FE7DE3BE91B5381B577A9D35002E7F24| |6A994B96814AE9BB62F6DE4AC2C2A4F2DBD119ECD4C99D7CC42C98C4FE7CDAC635B| |D9CC197B71C90E7BD6B49937CDF8DC729178CEB1CD42CE5940707669291F3F6FE51| |61CAB900BB8A394691469D0E40E660A2B56C99AB7F296B3EA7767E68AA679B56BBA| |6865E367ED65C7CCA4CC15CB70168C42266D941CD35EED204DFDF43E0BD18F02F19| |455E097062475A8F8CDA0E30FC398FF7F5F1D18525D4B0D86058C301C4394610CA3| |0C2F28932267520ECEA452CB34ECF9D2A04C0F5E520C9FACC087761A4674D489607| |E11CC2F8225D0C13E6D14B55656508B56C575A9C36716398C302F0A916FBDACA05E| |F8BE260D0D52145F03BEF19A00BE0B586738820D019B0C5DD862D02841501613141| |5348A0A1AF197E1F6201082A2EDA60CE1AEEE5A0EE1BE809B70E1B0DB3917B655B7| |EC0EDCE2E2DE90F22629259A68775C4B9276B6796F73CABE6664E87F58470B4ABCB| |8058B5C7F1B62AA07330CBB09DE5202EA92B21BA615EB2CAF171B0CFDD814B02560| |47F78ECC36C304A96997C2A8ED78C80986F0581CAF070C09F2EDDC3B9465BD13E98| |AA51E03582568AEEC69496CEE574E302A04F7D12684A58E2861C4E0ED9307939420| |22B726E2769AFADA2D3ADD2D12748B96F7E294EAD5ED657A4EADE9914F4D0FDEF3E| |AA3F820E0A3804FDE85C33DDD83470C97C9D0275F803E4C7082011C1730C910C709| |012719742A77503AD4EAA038D443B8A079F093E14B001891058FE0095FA3286A340| |FD6386E148D3EAFB14FE181CA33AFA8EE987CCC6398E004E318D7DC8D1A47D2036A| |755C3E9F71D1D820094FC8B731218477E9909F72E5AD7C29A2FAFFDFAA726ABFA3C| |6C16775D9932C0A87D8AAFADC89D03B55F384BDA2A44BAC6AFB80A53FF6CFDF6111| |57C89294F51AD513F3D513B3D513FF00CBFEDE76| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| The idea here is to let rage take care of your damage and acc boost and then go wild on procs, which are not affected by rage crash. During rage crash you can use footstomp + handclap for mitigation, both also take force feedback procs to boost your recharge so you can rage more. Arctic breath is another proc monster pseudo nuke that you can get in your 40s and it will help you alpha strike a mob as you make your approach. Energize and Powersink also helps you with your end because there's NO end reduction in all the powers I procced.

Forums steer towards peak performance and can get into 30 page "discussions" about it. Willpower is fine for the "casual" crowd and based on what you've posted it'll be a a good fit because it just works without you having to time clicks and such. Also, SO WHAT if you can't solo +4/8? A lot of people ask for builds with "aspirations" to do that. Most build request thread asks for something along the lines of "god builds that can solo +4/8/hamidon," but my guess is that the reality is that it's a "nice to have" rather than a necessity. In addition, +4/8 council is much different than +4/8 arachnos or vanguard. Incarnates also trivialize some of those encounters, you are never going to get capped resists AND defenses to everything with IO set bonuses, but destinies can make even the poorest builds god mode for a few seconds. The mark of a good player is knowing what you can and can not handle and adjusting as the situation calls for it. For example I had an ice tank express reluctance to tank +4/8 Resistance stating his defenses gets shredded by them. I told him instead of standing in one spot in the open and trying to fight them, round them up around a corner. That simple adjustment made all the difference in the world to his survival because now he (and the rest of the team) can use AoEs more efficiently and dispatch mobs quicker, instead of taking potshots which debuff his defense from mobs he can't reach. If willpower suits your playstyle go for it and make the best of it. I had a DM/WP build on live and there's nothing wrong with it.

It's easy to overlook synergy if you evaluate each power in a vacuum. Consider what you are trying to accomplish which is to be a melee blaster (requiring the ability to survive in melee range). Consider your offensive toolkit, which includes rains that force mobs to run (thus a need to keep them in the rain). Your ability to rotate knockdowns with thunderstrike and force of thunder can help you solve for both of those objectives.

You skipped force of thunder, tell me, in your own words. why.

Good points. My first draft had hasten and tentacles with the stun proc instead of the presence pool and that was truly endurance heavy due to the fact that I was spamming tentacles/torrent. The hasten crash also contributed to quite a few "oops where all my toggles go?" moments. This one is more manageable as a complete build for exemped content but I imagine those leveling the traditional way will lean on recovery serums and blue pills quite a bit until they have their slots filled out. End game I took vigor because all 3 attributes that it boosts helps my build. I took spectral interface for the immob. Destiny is a toss up. I took ageless for the debuff resist and the +rech but I could just as well swap it out for incan/barrier if the situation called for those.