Krazie Ivan

thx for clarifying that - my mind tends to run the conversion on it's own

when comparing /Nin to /SR, don't forget the scaling +Res mechanic. i realize the OP's stated goals didn't specifically include durability, but since the set comparison was brought-up... if SR is built to capitalize on the mechanic with a meaningful baseline of +Res & some attention to replacing HP, it'll scrape along in the bottom 25% of your HP bar for an insane amount of time (even longer on a Brute, & more like bottom 40%). plus, you can extend the length of time considerably (if not indefinitely on a Brute) with Rune or M.Core. even with just 25% +Res baseline on a Scrap, you'll pucker at 5-10% HP for quite a while & have plenty of warning/time to pop insp... i think that beats an emergency heal on a timer any day. ...and that's coming from someone who loves /Regen, which is 24/7 emergency heals on timers, lol

this is right. 3ppm vs 2.5ppm, both are 2sec hold & same +2 Mag

same. the game content doesn't change a ton, while Mids is a never-ending puzzle of game-mechanics & probabilities/possibilities w/o a finish line. and most of what has changed in-game, has been AT Set combos & new IOs ...a benefit to Mids too.

my good friend of many years can help you there...

imo, meh. i took it on a Claw/Inv, but as a Mule it never made it into my power tray. that's about it for modern set-IO builds, but i spose if someone wanted to run all SOs still, esp w/o Hasten, it'd need to be in rotation. modern high-recharge builds do better with just the high DPA attacks.

tend to agree, & would argue it results in less dmg output & even less durability most of the time. sure, they're safe at range (unless something manages to bean them from melee) - but like Nemu said, they miss-out on killing speed. Fire3 and Water/Atom/Mu are 2 of my fav's, but man it was hard to get defenses into the 40's. the payoffs are large tho... they still have high Def in really low-lvl content, which makes them incredibly powerful to blap with, & they take far less dmg in the late-game than /Mace blasters. both chars are in melee 100%. maybe take a fresh look, & try chasing typed Def instead?

i don't think the Slow or Range get you much, outside Lingering, which is already likely as good as needed if slotted. the Hold Duration & ToHit DeBuff would be welcome, but i don't think they alone are enough... esp cause i skipped Flash on my ill/rad. hard to say for sure w/o seeing the build, likewise about End concerns, which i would prioritize. depending on the build, and other Incarnates, maybe look at: --- Vigor Radial --- Healing, Acc, End Reduc (was very important on my ill/rad w/many toggles & 230+Rech), Confuse duration, Sleep, Fear (S.Terror with Procs/Font?). --- Musculature Radial --- Dmg, Immob, Def DeBuff, End Mod, Run speed, ToHit DeBuff.

good 🙂 as-is, i had decided long ago to not play it. so any change at all can only improve on that situation.

Atomic (is the bomb, for added survivability through debuff). but, have to stay in melee... blapper build would be ST-centric with Sonic tho, so maybe not for everyone. not on your list either, so i suspect you already know & ruled it out! (posted for the benefit of others reading & looking to debuff)

is it set to 0 Allies in Mids, and still only 41% when toggled "on"? hard to help ya polish the build w/o seeing it, but... might look in oddball places to find more Ranged Def, like Blessing/Exp.Strike/Numina/Etc. also, are you hindered by cost at all, or are you using WOs/ATOs/Purples already?... lookin at my very old Fire/Shield for comparison, and feel like there might be a lot of room for gains. but as for an opinion on your posted dilemma, with just the info given... i'd stick to softcap. if that means from teaming, and you're fine with being mindful of the -4% gap (absolutely viable way to play), and Rune will be slotted, then go with build #2. if this were a squishy w/o Mez protection, i'd easily suggest build #2.

nice - love when people do their homework! figure you've already seen: ...sounds like Billz' strategy fits you well, and he's already helpin here. ah... oh, i did have something cool to add; F.Up slotting... i'm a fan of Scrap Crit proc, plus Gauss proc, plus 2 ToD (inc proc), and 2 Mako (incl proc). but i know it's not always feasible, depending on the rest of the build/slotting/goals. i'm also not a fan of Evis if you've got enough +Rech to skip it, as the animation is so long compared to the rest of Claws. good for bonuses tho, esp E/N. yep. the 6% Tox/Psi won't help often (or much even in the rare times you're against them), esp if compared to how often that added Neg dmg will help vs Lethal resistant foes.

eh, it's baseline is certainly worse than most sets... building an exceptional one isn't easy... and it does take a lot of skill to play one well... but as Fergz mentioned (sry, can't agree on the "great" part 😄 ), making Regen work is up to the user. knowledge of game mechanics is tested more than any other melee set, for sure, and possibly more than most other ATs/Sets in the game. the thread linked by Nemu says exactly how to make Regen work, and can result in surpassing some other sets, esp in late-game. to suggest "reroll" sounds to me like giving up... which is fine if you're not looking to challenge yourself.

i only took Storm/Cobra/CAK, giving Crane the boot-to-the-head so i didn't have to fix the KB. had over 80% +Rech before Haste tho, so it'd have to go back in like the chain Uun suggests. Thunder & Eagle suck, from an efficiency perspective. leaving a slight 7% SL Res gap before cap is efficient if you have Reactive Unique slotted, and building up E/N Res (as done in the last build) is a good move for end-game content (tho i think the hit to Rech was too harsh). agree that Psi can be overlooked, & mitigated in-game the few times needed. @Rumble ...the Gauss proc isn't very good in Invinc, better in Tactics if you team mostly, best in BU. noticed P.Transfer hasn't been used/suggested here yet. and might consider Ageless to help fight Def Debuff in end-game. if tight on slots, HOs are nice for Invuln (don't see em in too many builds anymore).

typically, low HP cap ATs work best with Def & high HP (Tanks/Brutes/HP-boosted Scraps to a point) allows Res builds to be effective. and yeah, Fire/Fire shines in Melee. best i managed on my Fire3, was 40/33/40 Melee/Range/AoE, but the high-likelihood of a teammate running Maneuvers meant i was always softcapped. that allowed me to have SLF Res in the mid/upper 50's, 22% ToHit for insta-snipe, & pretty decent 125% +Rech. late-game pure Energy attacks can hurt.

CJ ...if you don't have a Kismet for +TohHit, or 5 LotGs & KB protection already, need a spot for S.Wall & R.Def +Res Uniques, or want Slow Res (not too major). Assault is pretty minor on most ATs,

-- naaah ....it's an avail power pick like any other! 🙂 -- basically, that's what i'm proposing, but on a smaller scale (no big Res or Heal/Regen powers added to buff SR further - set doesn't need any help). hit SLENFC Res caps at ~45% of your HP bar, and the incoming dmg slows to the point that the small Heals/Regen can usually keep up. if a fight looks to be rough/long, take the alpha at Res caps by alternating Rune/M.Core on top of your 40-45% SLENFC Res and buy yourself more time. plus, they are super helpful vs the rare Psi/Tox mobs that either pump out too much dmg and/or are coded to ignore your positional Def. -- with a low-investment primary like Kat or MA or others, plenty of room for Mules! Absorb proc, additional Slow Res or KB protection, and they have nice Res bonuses at 2 slots if you have some left.

yeah, it's not an intuitive or easy way to build SR, but it does tip the mechanics of the game in your favor if you can pull it off. gotta be able to cap Res early (by already having large amounts before the +Res mechanic adds to it, as HP drops) to forgo the heal... otherwise it doesn't work, and you'll need to depend on the heal. Accolades & +HP bonuses also go a long way, as does Rune/M.Core alternating for damage taken earlier in the HP bar. but the net effect is a char that will even survive FAR longer than if you had AidSelf, because you're taking so much less dmg the more hurt you become. & although the heal isn't recharging faster as your HP drops...the heal procs & regen & absorb are all making seemingly larger contributions to your comparatively small pool of HP. another perspective might be that the DPS from high +Rech for MA or Kat chain is slightly hindered by the long animation of, and necessity of using, AidSelf. and you can still push global Rech over 130%+ (Haste included), which i know is more than enough for MA (my MA/Reg/Soul only has 3 ST chain, & Tail if i need the AoE). the one downfall of course is solo vs large incarnate mobs, where icap can play a bigger roll depending on the mob type. +Rech isn't much of a trade-off, but 59% Def or 35-55% Res to SLENFC is... i won't pretend all 3 are possible, as my icap/155% Rech builds only get 20-40% SLENFC Res. sticking with AidSelf isn't wrong by any means, i'm just noting there's a way around taking it if one would rather not. 🙂

imo, Sting/Gambler and/or Flashing (depending on +Rech in the build), BU, Lotus, Soaring, Golden all but Elude with evenly built Resists in the 35-55% range, a self-Heal and/or good Regen, and Absorb proc/s, it can be insanely durable. it's almost like old-school /Regen in MoG in-that you'll be scraping along at 10-15% HP and still not die... it's HP-based +Res is that good. takes some gettin use to tho for sure. try building up E/N/F/C Res, run Tough (other S/L Res bonuses will come easily). make sure you're softcapped to Melee/AoE/Range (icap isn't even hard to hit). slot whatever +Heal +Regen +Absorb you can fit. peeps use to take Aid Self, but i think it works against SR's HP-based Res mechanic now, while small Heals/Regen/Absorb work with it.

P.Transfer proc + EndMod will make it heal you a bit better ;D

glad you enjoyed it!

shhh... shut your psi hole, it's not a very good set! <.< >.> seriously though, psi doesn't hit very hard even when there's "a lot" of it. i've done nothing to bolster psi Def or Res, so only rely on 25% positional Def & 35-37% Res while alternating Rune/M.Core & the Heal/Regen from Energize. if it does more than tickle, i can still slap 26% more Def on it with Meld up 2/3 of the time.

i agree with Josh & Coyote... 5-6 dmg procs & open on mobs before using BU. can't imagine skipping GZ. with -Res in Therapy, you also get a free dmg boost to powers that are dmg-locked, like Judgement. i didn't have 4-5 slots to dmg proc Therapy on my TW/Rad/Soul, as i wanted to maintain extremely high saturated +Rech for TW to shine, w/o giving up softcap Melee & effectively-capped SLENFT. if it was Kat, i'd happily drop some +Rech for fully slotted Therapy bomb as well.

someone deserves a pat on the back for (re)coding this to function properly. but, i'm just not entirely sold due to already missing some dmg output when a target dies before the DoT completes. it'd be interesting to see the maths on how much of a difference it makes to front-load, but that's a huge project in-itself, and would be subject to too many variables to give an accurate representation.

a large part of why Mu works out to be great for farming is the very low cast times of Fences & Ball, which then become far better than SpineBurst in that regard. combined with high target limits & the use of -Res procs, they pull a lot of weight. how many targets are you hitting on avg with Dragon's Tail?...not likely 16, right? with how often the 5s boost is up, do you think the FF +Rech proc is helping you deal 20% more dmg on all attacks over the entire farm run? the big hurdle you guys are going uphill against, is the lack of a 2nd Dmg Aura in DM & MA. it's a lot of free DPS to leave out. as for the posted build from the OP, i agree with Werner about hitting Def softcap, & suggest you take a clean new look at which sets contribute to that goal first before trying to tweak small things for efficiency. lots of +Rech is great, but you're going to cut into that bonus DPS a ton by spending time on powers to recoup HP and End. less time spent surviving is more time spent killin.