Sir Myshkin

I know there are still a devout few who truly enjoy the story driven aspect of Red and Gold, or in general like to stick with theme and play a villain in the villain territories, but just as it was on Retail Live, the same impact is felt here: they are the minority base, and because we're considerably scaled down in volume (by contrast), it is even more-so felt now than it was before. The Rogue Isles is a real killer contrast to Blue or Gold both thematically and visually. The Devs could place a vending machine in St. Martial that spits out a billion Influence a day and I wouldn't even change my alignment to pick it up because I (personally) just really dislike Redside; it depresses the heck out of me. I've never gotten a character above 15 over there, and even my one true Villain character I ever rolled on Retail I had to bring blue-side because I just couldn't do it, but wanted to have the character hit 50. The only red content I do, simply because I have no option in it, is occasionally running Black Scorpion's Patron Arc for the badge in 15 minutes which thankfully avoids a lot of travel, only hits four doors (one repeated multiple times), and uses a lot of Crey interiors. When Praetoria first got introduced with Going Rogue I rolled a character on launch day and played through the arcs, and enjoyed it pretty immensely, even fit the character's path into their backstory and really felt it fleshed out in a nice way. I even went back and dabbled a bit in the alternate path to get a feel for the content over there, but once a player gets to the point of no return, there's nothing more to really continue doing, nor a reason to really go back. Since there is such a divide on what Praetoria is both functionally and story wise, hanging out in that zone just doesn't have an extreme amount of value, and that's why so few people really return to it. Now if Portal Corp missions really did drop us off in Praetoria, and then we had to find the mission door there, that would be an interesting use of the zone... [tl;dr] Anyway, mostly rambling on to say that there's not really anything that could be done to Red or Gold side that would validate--for me personally--playing in those zones. I happen to rather enjoy being able to relatively fly through to 50 on a character, and happily do so Blueside, knowing I can exemp down whenever needed without concern to recapture any content. Frankly, I'm not here for the missions and stories. For me it's more about just playing the game and clicking the buttons surrounded by other players.

Something I find interesting is the variety of approaches that exist to flipping in the market. There's some specific 'secret' choices that people find and and use, but I know there are very few that likely know every "sweet spot" on the conversion wheel. I know I discovered one very early on that had (and still has) very little/no traffic, but I found it a bit tedious to amass volume of INF from something that had a somewhat small--but consistent--gain. I also know it's a shallow well, so I don't ever say specifically what it is because it can't handle volume. For some a 200-500k profit per unit is enough when talking about mass volumes (100+ transactions), others may not fully do the math and miss that. Back on Retail I used to focus on Pangean Soils primarily, among a couple other items. I did the math on what I needed to do to make 200k clearance from purchase to sell that didn't upturn the market, or result in a lack of movement. I have an excel sheet somewhere still that has the daily bids/sales and accounts for market fees so I could track the trends and see profit margins. It wasn't like I was making a ton per day, but it was consistent (and in Retail's Market, consistency was key). The whole process is so much less of a headache here on Homecoming than it ever was back then!

Even at the low end of assuming you are primarily selling common IO's, 45,000 sold still breaks double-digit billion INF values. I will say that puts an interesting target into view too: knowing what is primarily (75% or greater) being sold to put perspective on the net earnings. I don't think any of us should actually declare that though, just noting the speculation of what it could be is intriguing. The alternative measure I math'd out was an average assumption of 4 million per enhancement and that number, even if I assume 45% of it was "cost of doing business" still broke triple-digit billions.

Easier to just redirect you to the Market subsection where Marketeers have already gone over these things. Here is a link to a current mass-opening that shows all contents earned from 1,001 packs.

!(@#@%*#^$()FEAR!*@&^#$!#)!@))_$ 🤬😠 is not disgruntled by this mez hole at all /s

I'll take a Resistance Tanker please, and since IO's weren't taken off the table...

If you want to stay with Rebirth, and are going to team frequently (or all the time), then taking Musculature would give you a solid bump output, but if you're going to solo, or 50/50, I might say take Agility. Hasten is a dime off perma, and that'll turn into a bit over 15/s total down time. If you toss in Agility that puts Hasten's total drop at ~4/s instead, and gives you extra cushion on defensive stats to deal with +4 content solo. The only reason I suggested pairing with Ageless was 100% for its recharge component. Just goes back to what I mentioned before: "Musculature Core + Ageless Core (More Damage), or Agility Core + Rebirth Radial (Enhanced Total Survival)... Either option helps put Hasten closer to Perma (is just a bit off without). If I were playing it myself I might more lean on Musculature + Rebirth from a team-setting knowing I'm likely to get balanced out on those small percentages from outside buffs."

None of my characters run mission arcs or flashbacks, all TFs and Radios, none of my "own" contacts beyond Radios. They're all reporting Merit earnings from Task Forces.

Epic: From a personal perspective... I don't really use the Epics on Scrappers/Stalkers because I find most of them to be "eh" at best, and for characters building on defense I end up finding some excuse to forgive theme and wiggle-in Shadow Meld (because it's just too good). I may take a ranged ability if I feel it works to the character and I want something to tag runners with from time to time, but I generally shy away from those picks and take things like Tactics and/or Assault and use the slots elsewhere. Having said that, Leviathan Mastery is relatively "in theme" for an Ice/Ice and Hibernate is just a really solid power that plays to Ice Armor's design. I mean, it was quite literally designed for/with the set. Water Spout isn't a bad distraction for a spawn to deal with, and does pretty well against harder single targets when it comes to providing steady stream of extra damage (and that Achilles Proc to a set that can't get it otherwise). Spirit Shark just ends up fulfilling (in my mind) the role of 5% extra F/C/E/N defense and a range runner-tagging ability; I'd never consider that a "main chain" kind of attack because it's slow, high cool down, and low comparable damage. I'm not the kind of Melee player who worries about trying to stack a hold somewhere, much easier to just kill it faster. Kismet v. Perf Shift: If Kismet were to be taken out of the build Ice Sword (a twice-in-the-cycle attack), Frozen Aura, and Icicles would all suffer at both +3 and +4 by taking that unique out. It may not seem like it would be much to consider, but Icicles can contribute a significant amount of long-term damage, weakening that power's ability to hit is bad. Trying to fix that would be to change the slotting (which is coincidentally providing more Acc from bonuses), thus not going to work out beneficially. Trading Acc for End also (in my mind) doesn't really make sense, and is a bad trade. As I said, Energy Absorption is an on-the-spot endurance corrective tool, should be close to a full bar nearly every time with just a couple of enemies in range, has no accuracy check and is auto-hit. Icy Bastion also has boosted recovery in its duration, and if Hibernate is taken that's a full end bar on use too. Purple Slotting: For "Damage Enhancement" in the purple sets, the option is either Dam or Dam/Rech to leave out. The power doesn't need/benefit widely from Dam/Rech, and the Dam gives it 5 more points and that applies to both GIS and Frozen Aura. yes it ED caps it at 96.89% pre-Musculature, but in either case it's still more damage over having .1/s of recharge in a couple of attacks that don't gain any favors from such a difference... I'd take the damage myself. Hybrid: Melee would be an interesting choice to take as well, for sake of mentioning it. Given that Icy Bastion has a ~90-100/s cooldown (pending Destiny/Alpha), Melee could cover that if necessary and get an entire 150/s stretch of enhanced stats. Given how much utility is already in Ice Armor though (esp if Hibernate is taken), my vote would land on Assault for big orange numbers.

Most of the attacks in that posted build are considerably under capacity to deal with more than +1 or +2, let alone +4 (which none of the build can support solo). Energy Absorption is your built-in fix for any and all endurance related problems (although that build has some egregious slotting that definitely puts you in the negative from EPS considerations. Icy Bastion becomes a nice "regen-esque" heal with a bit of slot investment. While under Hoarfrost it can push a Scrapper into the 60+ HP/s range for that 30/s, ontop of being able to cap nearly everything. I put together a corrected build based off my experience with Ice Armor on Tanks. I removed one unnecessary power (Permafrost does not majorly benefit in any significant way) and subbed in Hibernate instead. Perma Hoarfrost with Icy Bastion cycling in gives solid regen values, but to give an additional patch to any uncontrollable overflow, Hibernate is an incredibly useful tool. Not only can the power refuel your HP and End, but it makes you untouchable turning it into an excellent panic button during a Cascading Defense Failure (or just general bad luck strings). Also subbed in Super Jump since I thought I saw you mention that somewhere above too. Something to keep in mind: Energy Absorption can stack on itself significantly, having the power on a 22/s cooldown means its possible to get enough +Def going to be in the iCap territory on Ice Armor without much effort involved. This build below will be S/L soft cap, and close on E/N without EA being used, and pumped up the F/C to 35% to give better padding there and round out the total defenses a bit better once EA gets moving along. Edit: Forgot to mention that this corrected build is also good on Accuracy for +4 content, should have a better end management too. I didn't add an Alpha or Destiny as that's a pretty open book, but the two combinations I'd personally suggest (for this build) would be either Musculature Core + Ageless Core (More Damage), or Agility Core + Rebirth Radial (Enhance Survival), and Hybrid: Assault Core for both. Either option helps put Hasten closer to Perma (is just a bit off without). If I were playing it myself I might more lean on Musculature + Rebirth from a team-setting knowing I'm likely to get balanced out on those small percentages from outside buffs.

Ice/Cold Controller Ice/Ice Blaster Ice/Ice Melee Ice/Cold Corruptor Cold/Ice Defender Ice/Ice Dominator I think you'll be busy! Welcome back, explore your options and have fun with it 🙂

I have no idea why I invested the time to do this 🤣

I want to touch a bit on that underlined aspect here. Preface: I am making the assumption that you're statement is a bit of a hyperbole and the following is just an exploration of that statement. I tried to think of a circumstance that would even make that possible, and... it practically isn't. Many procs are 3PPM, some 3.5, a few 4, even rarer is 5, and the "hard to get" are 1, couple of 2's. A 3 PPM proc to get 15 hit chances, not success, just chances, would mean it'd have to be in a power activating every 4.75/s (including its animation and recharge together). There are quite a few abilities in the game that can achieve this, but they are all starting with a recharge that is typically 8/s or lower, putting these attacks inherently at the floor of probability (5% is floor, giving a range of 5-10% for over-compensation). To achieve 15 successful procs in one minute would be a stellar act of divine luck in random rolls. If I go with an over-compensated 10%, out of 15 chances, that's 1.5 procs. Lets go ahead and round that up to 2 for simplicity as a half proc isn't really a thing. If I can get 2 procs in 60/s, and I add four of these procs into one power, I collectively have 8 total chances to cash-in on that bonus damage. At 72 damage (round up) that's 576 damage, or a paltry 9.6 DPS. That's all it boils down to. Lets counter that to something that starts with a higher base recharge like 20/s. Our best case opportunity is going to bring that down (and this takes a LOT of global, keep that in mind) is around 9/s. A 3 PPM in a 20/s base is pretty much marking out at ~90% probability (super good odds). If I take that circumstance, I'm now looking at a power that has a strong chance to proc ~6 times. That's pretty good, but it's definitely not 15. At 6 chances we're looking at 432 damage, or 7.2 DPS add for this one proc. If I can manage to shove 3 (often most probable/capable to sustain) procs in here, then 1,296 damage or 21.6 DPS. That's a nice bump, sure, but it's likely costing on a great deal on endurance, damage, or accuracy depending on what got sacrificed to make the power work in that condition. Now we do have some procs with higher probabilities, and some that do more significant damage and can be leveraged really well in certain places to increase their return, but the break down at the decimal is only a few points extra over the course of time. On average you're likely only talking about a median standard add of 50-60 DPS to a 4-5 attack cycle in a <9/s window of best-case runs, and that's assuming maximum proc saturation which means IO sacrifice, and potentially build sacrifice in some other areas. Are things procing more often than they should? Technically no. If you try and lock the system into a binary max "You're 3PPM and you will only fire 3PPM max." That's just not feasible to try and implement in a game of this magnitude. If you try and include Global Recharge into the equation to try and create equity balance, it'll substantially alter the platform of many procs and likely floor their probability in a wide spectrum of cases for the sub-30/s recharge crowd. Even at "the floor" however you'll find that the math is actually still pretty favorable for a "shove 3-4 in and go" crowd. It may not be as much, but it's still a boost. We already know (through math, and testing) that there are plenty of powers that have longer cool downs that still have very strong (or maintain max probability) options with enhancement included because once base recharge starts growing larger than 40/s, it eventually reaches a tipping point where "enhancement no longer matters in the equation, it's going to fire anyway." In those situations though we're talking about powers that are only going off once, maybe twice in a minute in the lower case options, and we've maxed out a 3PPM in a 1-2PPM only power. Short answer: It is working as it was designed to. There are (as previously mentioned) some off-cases that "unintentionally" bend/break that formula a bit too aggressively (Epics), but the core of the game is utilizing the formulas consistently, the way it was built, as intended. And yes, there are a few mad hatters out there who like to find the unique ways to bend that system dynamically in fun/different ways, but they tend to be very abnormal and abstract directions.

First I will say that I truly believe they wanted a better opportunity to test the PPM mechanic further, however (Second) it is working "as intended" in the initial phase. Comment sections have been posted up for other things that have specific call outs about the math and mechanics being specific to the goal of the developers working on it (I'm terrible at names, but as I recall they were along the lines of "and this is how (dev) said we're setting this" and a couple others that were basically "this is the new WAI"). Please don't ask me for sources, it was in the code and posted up over a year ago. Now given that, keep in mind that the PPM mechanic we have now had just been published to the Retail Test Servers, we had access to it for a whole whopping five minutes before NCSoft... did what they did, so any real investigation or testing of those systems just flat out didn't happen. There are definitely a few areas of the PPM function that will definitely get visited (Powerhouse has said as much) like the functionality of Procs in conjunction with Epic/Patron pools. The very thing that makes PPM good also happens to be the defining balance of those powers; longer recharge, and in some cases longer animations to offset the additional 'supplemental' utility, but not make them main-stay powers. I can see some consideration being given for looking into a few other unique cases that may result in some PPM values being decreased (less frequency) on specific procs, but something to keep in mind about the "new" mechanic is it was designed specifically to give more frequency, and that no matter what we'd (at worst case) get bumped back down to where it started which "wasn't bad, but kinda eh" at the get-go. I know there are a few Elephant In The Room procs that get used, but to be honest those either get attributed in places where they're being appropriately utilized (1-2 limited use functionally to begin with per minute), or are being cycled in abilities that fire off so often they're just running the gamble of floor probability (as in if my odds are 1 in 20, then lets roll those 20 super fast and get my 1). This later aspect is what comes into play with Melee attacks. Low probability (in most cases), but they're cycled so quickly, so often that the opportunity seems to spike up a lot, but is in fact "not that often." This becomes leveraged by duplicating, triplicating, quad...licating? quadlicating no, not a word, but it will be for now! the amount of those rolls by increasing the proc count per swing. In that situation it's not a matter of a broken system, but intentionally excessive use of that system to play the odds in "law of averages." In regards to the "when" of any consideration to change any part of that system, we're working with the support of just a few people dabbling in the code and quality of life has currently (most awesomely) taken majority precedence over trying to find a patch to fix a leak on an issue that comes from a bucket the size of Hoover Dam, and isn't a simple work up. Do I expect some tweaks to happen? Of course. Do I expect them to happen any time soon? Not really, no. All of these interactions and functions with procs have been out and known for almost eight+ months now, to continue waiting to utilize them or try them out is wasted opportunity to see dynamic and different ways to play. edit to add: not necessarily targeting this response at you, MTeague, but as a general comment on the state of the game about this thought pattern as it creeps up from time to time.

I did a write up here that should answer your inquiry (click on "Sir Myshkin replied..." it'll take you right to the post). Edit: Okay, so there's too much "spoiler" confined content on that page that it ends up shuffling the link to the bottom of the page when it loads (not what's intended to happen). I'll post the contents here: This was the original questions: "Why is SW more optimal than, say, Eviscerate? I understand that people hate the aesthetics of the animation (I am no fan of it myself) but is there another reason besides an aesthetic one that one would choose SW over Eviscerate? Is Eviscerate more of an End hog? Is it slower? I see some claws/sr people completely ignore it and I would have no problem doing the same if there was solid math behind that choice." And this was the response that contains your answer: Core concepts on creating an attack chain (AoE or ST, or a combo of both) is looking at what provides the most "Bang for Buck" (Damage for Cost/Cast), and repeating the best options as often as possible. Every attack has what is called a "DPA" or Damage Per Activation. This is the Dam / Cast = DPA. Shockwave has an "Arcana Time" (Cast+ServerTickDelay) of 1.188 and does a base 72.26 Damage, its DPA is 60.82. Eviscerate has an Arcana of 2.508, base of 143.2, DPA of 57.09. Technically Eviscerate has a higher critical opportunity which makes is better exclusively on Scrappers over say Brutes or Tankers who don't get that function. Shockwave has an opportunity to Critical as well, but not as high as Eviscerate. From a Single-Target perspective it is reasonable to want to take Eviscerate, and it too can slot similarly between sets and procs (including a -Res proc which also happens to be -20% compared to the one Shockwave can slot at -12.5%). Now at this point Eviscerate is sounding pretty tasty, so why would I not take it, right? Well the answer to that comes down to a handful of reasons that all pretty-much come down to the cast and function of the two powers: Shockwave is a long-reach cone that does KB (can convert to KD) and is surprisingly very strong for such an ability. Typically a cone/aoe would not have a DPA that makes it comparable (or potentially better) than a normal ST attack. It also has a very fast cast time (1.188 is very quick compared to many other attacks in the same set which are slightly, to significantly longer). Eviscerate may be able to tag in its short cone an extra 2-3 bodies if they're clumped well enough, but Shockwave can grab an entire spawn, and having that as an option in your main attack chain is very handy. Follow Up is the binding agent that makes Claws shine by giving it a significant damage and to-hit boost, plus the ability can stack ontop of itself. Typically a reasonable amount of recharge in a build can manage to effectively get this down to "2x", which means an effective attack cycle that happens within 5/s each go-around to keep up FU's 10/s duration stacked on itself after it gets rolling. In many cases of casual recharge another attack needs to fill the small remainder gap which is where something like Strike sometimes comes into play early on, or conveniently Shockwave after 32 that is a bit better. Eviscerate could be exchanged (potentially) for a couple of options, or just added in, but its cast time tends to force the "5/s" cycle off kilter, which isn't the best. Typical go-to chain for Claws is FU > Focus > Slash (with slash having a -Res proc), but it requires an insane amount of recharge to get FU down to that <3/s recharge. A reason why this is so sought-after is the fact that FU > Focus > Slash ends up with a very tiny window where it triple stacks FU and allows just enough time to tag Focus with that 3x buff, making Focus hit incredibly hard. An "easy" chain that works similarly is FU > Focus > Eviscerate (with -Res) which is a bit more forgiving on recharge and still fits (squeezes in at .1/s under 5/s). But a lot of practical testing tends to lean that an attack that starts growing beyond 2/s, especially 2.5+ is dramatically more damaging to consistency when it misses because of the amount of window it consumes to do its job. Focus has a DPA of 72.47 and an Arcana cast of 1.32, doubled up that is 144.94 and 2.64/s, Eviscerate is (as noted) 57.09 at 2.508. Even if Eviscerate critical for double value, it still isn't anywhere near just using Focus twice, so we really, really want to make Focus happen as much as possible, thus we stick with Slash (shorter cast, 'same' base DPA, net overall gain to DPS). Keep this note strongly in mind on one reason why Eviscerate so commonly gets skipped. If Claws can do 144.94 base DPA with Focus in 2.6/s, if Eviscerate is being used, and it misses, not only are you missing out on the 57.09 DPA in that window, but the overall net loss of what could have been much much more. If one Focus were to miss, it's only 1.32/s of lost time, and can quickly be earned another chance after just a couple of seconds cool down. Fast, strong attacks are very forgiving to DPS when it comes to misses. Slow and heavy attacks are very damaging to DPS when they miss because they prevent better, optimal recovery. A couple others mentioned the Endurance cost as a concerning factor, and to touch on that one reason Eviscerate isn't seen as a hungry ability is because, again, its cast time is so long. Our endurance is recovered at a base #.## "End Per Second" (server ticks apply to us and all too, but lets just go with it cause the math washes the same). Lets say you have a typical 3.00 EPS (nice round number). Shockwave with decent enhancement comes down to about 7.24 end, and casts in 1.188, that's kind of an expensive trade. Eviscerate (slotted the same exact way) comes down to 5.56, and casts 2.5, its cheaper, right? Well, technically not only is it cheaper, it's kind of "free" by consequence. If you recover 3.00 EPS, and it casts in 2.5/s, you're actually earning 7.5 total end during that cast cycle, meaning you actually gain almost 2 points of Endurance! Because of this, Eviscerate inclusive chains can feel a lot less stressful on the end bar. Back to the original question. I did briefly mentioned that Strike was another common filler which can just as easily serve a purpose, fill the chain in the appropriate gap, and doesn't cost as much endurance to use, so why (other than its cone, we're only thinking ST after all, right?) would I take Shockwave if its going to burn me out? That answer comes down to that -Res proc I hinted at. Even at -12.5% (nearly half what we see in many others that do the same function), that proc is force-multiplying your entire attack chain's damage when it goes off, and it lasts for 10/s. Even if has a sporadic trigger and you only see it a couple times a minute, it is boosting your overall performance above what was possible supplementing with Strike. The rest of that comes down to finding some good end-management techniques (or Ageless Incarnate Destiny).

Built a Defender who "only" used the Fighting Pool (AR TAoE/Cone for spawns) as its attacks. Did very well considering, but it did feel a bit static after a while since there's no dynamic change ups or anything. Also using Boxing and Cross Punch as replacements in Super Strength. Boxing is a solid right, Jab has an alt left-handed animation that is a quick, well, jab so it's a nice 1-2 combo, and Cross Punch gives a nice wind-up hitter with KO Blow being the really bamboozler. Feels so much like a boxer.

Ooh, okay, I'll bite: For a Regen Scrapper I was actually a bit surprised by how low the amount of damage he's taken actually is, especially compared to some others above who're in close proximity level wise and likely not Regen. Someone else mentioned a question on the Merit counter, this is accurate for this character. This character ended up becoming my original prime marketer before I started having characters self-fund. It's interesting to know what seems like such a small four digit number actually represents. And what is technically my "most played" character (somehow). Build is a "self funded" and has 190 sold enhancements, 598 Salvage sold, and 2 Inspirations sold (the very first thing ever used to generate 10 Inf to make 30k from a T3 Inspiration in order to pick up the combat boosters at P2W at level 1). Another case of "Merits are accurate."

The adjustments to Gauntlet have done a pretty good job of making the damage aspect a non-concern for Tankers specifically at this point. Pre Tanker-Fix my Ice Armor could peel and hold aggro off anything (including other Tanks), post change I watched an Invulnerability Tanker yank stuff off me with Taunt (as in that actual ability) versus my casual passive collection of Chilling/Icicles and Punchvoke and only necessary (out ranged) Taunting. Which, side tangent, been seeing a lot of players trying to over-tank/out-tank the "Point Tanker" lately and it is both confusing and annoying. Incidentally it has also resulted in my getting to watch a portion of those individuals end up eating floor for their efforts. 🙃

Interesting to see how a few others tackled the idea of a "Human" character by taking simplified sets (like Archery) and restricted the character in other ways (like enhancements), whereas I went the other way and restricted the Primary and Secondary as much as could be, utilized the weakest modifier AT (Defender), and stuck to the Fighting Pool as my main attacks, but did not necessarily restrict IO choice as the mass majority of what they provided came down to just enhancement value more than anything. Boxing, Kick, and Cross Punch don't really see any benefit from global recharge and the normal ilk of advanced builds so it really didn't matter to chase them down. The "tech" the character uses is all items that can be considered "stolen" or "refurbished junk" (and very little of it). He carries an assault rifle, but has no proficiency with the weapon so literally just sprays and prays (Full Auto) because he can't aim. Amusingly enough he can still take down an AV so... "yay!" That's been the only build I've put any kind of real hard core restrictions on. I also have no intention of ever playing the character again. 🙁

Excalibur aside, that about sums it up as a physical answer! And yet you're still missing the point, so moving on.

Huh... looked into it, had no idea. Appears to have been in the works for "a while" and 2016 was the last major discussion I could find this quote from: As for June this year it would appear they've also managed to get a lot of that pre-production stuff cleared (Script, Storyboarding) or close to it. Given who's in control of the project... I think I might be kind of intrigued to see how this plays out.

Hero 1 is not classed as having a designated power set, only The Honoree is. As to my knowledge there is nothing strictly in-game that otherwise disagrees with what the wiki has listed ("Unknown"). Given that Hero 1 is based around Excalibur, he would have inherently been a Broadsword character (Pendragon, his Praetorian counterpart is Titan Weapon). The Honoree: Side-switching has nothing to do with the fact that CoV was in existence for the RWZ, and the Lady Grey TF, meaning that, in regards to specifically The Honoree (as I was saying before), he could be classed as either a Brute or a Tanker technically, in this Villain form, but the current state of the game would imply Brute. And to my point about Sister Psyche, look at her power listing: She may be classed as a Controller as that was technically the only option for her at the beginning of the game, but she lacks a real definition of "support" and is primarily Controls and Blasts which are far more aligned with Dominators. It could easily be seen as a Mind/Energy Dom with PFF and Force Shield acting like an Ancillary. I wasn't defying what she's listed as, just demonstrating that the defined role doesn't necessarily match for its time period or how the character behaves/"plays". This same consideration extends to (as mentioned) Pendragon as a character, a Melee Weapon and Blaster Secondary (something that otherwise doesn't exist for any AT). Or, further take Citadel with "Energy Melee" as a primary and "Energy Blast" as a secondary, with "Other Abilities" from Energy Aura. He would be more closely aligned with the idea of a Tanker, but is classed as a Blaster for having three ranged abilities (and not even the Blaster version Energy Manipulation, but the actual tier list of Energy Melee).

Checked the wiki for anything official that may have been stated at some point, but there isn't anything specific stated. There does need to be some minor clarification too, "Hero One" in the CoH Lore was the father of "Hero 1", they have different "names". Both of the Hero heroes held the sword Excalibur and received their powers through that weapon. There's no listed information about a secondary of any kind. Pendragon is the Praetorian counterpart to Hero 1, he is listed as "Titan Weapons, Darkness Manipulation" so speculatively Hero 1 could've been something like Energy Manipulation, as that would thematically tie into... (true spoiler): I will say that the design/power structure of many of the signature characters tend to be hard to pin into a correct AT compared to what they seem, or are otherwise labeled. Sister Psyche as an example is listed as a Controller, but her powers very clearly say Dominator (Control Primary, Energy Assault Secondary).

Like Gobbledegook said, the crash is mostly something you can ignore. Yes I specifically mentioned one case scenario that occurred, but is not a normal circumstance and is easily manageable with more attention paid. With a couple of damage procs tossed into the powers there's no real reason to "stop" attacking. Majority of the time you might not even realize you've crashed, but that's a good potential time to consider leading into the next spawn, or activating Radiation Therapy or Ground Zero, or a number of many other things that'll actively be occurring around you. The damage out put with two stacks of Rage is substantially better than just the one, so don't let the idea of a measly crash slow you down.

Haymaker, KO Blow, and Foot Stomp can all take advantage of the FF+Rech proc. Unenhanced the later two will have pretty good odds of firing it off when you use them. If you go the Boxing/Cross Punch route like many others CP can sub in the proc as well. Immediate thing to get those powers rolling the trick is at least three slots, one for the proc and two for some Acc/End/Dam and Dam/End. Once Rage is rolling (even just one stack) you’ll get a nice boost to ToHit which will help patch up Acc, and eventually manage stacking. Right now my own is only 40... 42 I think as of last night. I’ve been freely tanking +4 fairly well, even managed some +6 last night thanks to some story arc weirdness. Only major issues are not watching my end more closely against Mu and Carnies, have end crashed a couple of times due to end drain stacked on top of Hasten and Rage crashes.