Sir Myshkin

Pretty much this. Take Moment of Glory for example. The power only lasts 15/s and the best uptime a player can achieve on their own is a 60/s recharge. The power only has a 25% up time. So yeah, have to take in more than just "this and that" in consideration for the why of it all.

Saw this thread and read through it (mostly) a few days ago, kind of brushed it off, but last night resulted in a story worth telling. So my first character back in the game was a Dark/Sonic, got it to 50 fairly quickly and then moved on to working other characters. Spent a lot of time primarily on a Scrapper (I realized I miss playing Melee Blender Mode). Decided to finally invest the remaining Influence into the Controller about the same time I saw this thread, and finished Attuning the build. In a desire to try out the fully-specced abilities I started picking up teams where I could, doing an MSR for some extra Converters (market got sparse on some key items), and then landed on a PUG last night that began a series of interesting events. I jump in to a mission that's already moving, the lead goes in one direction ahead of the team so I figure they're leading and I follow. We end up in a room with a ton of Werewolves, I don't think much of it and just lay down some control before I realize that the lead, and one other that followed are faceplanted and the rest of the team went in an entirely different direction. I look at counts and what's aggoring on me and start breaking 20 before there's just too many. Dark is primarily cone based, so I'm bouncing around the corners of the area reapplying constant max-coverage cones with absolutely no threat to myself. My Direwolf and Tiny the Tarantula are chomping away between a swarm of Haunts and the room is slowly dwindling down. We get down to the last few and the rest of the team finally swings over. The team lead is finally able to get up after the last five minutes of crazy and is just left going "I think I need to roll a Dark Controller." That team disbanded shortly after and I moved on to a new PUG... Full of Controllers! So the first mission I make the joke, "So how are we going to decide who gets to show off when? Draw lots?" We all laughed, but I was serious. The first room we entered was a classic Council with the upper ring around a platform and about six groups spread around. We collected the whole lot and mowed it down. I'd gotten pretty brazen in my last few missions and started running ahead and locking spawns down before the team could get into them. Collecting the mobs up on my own and doing what I could to try and herd while dropping mass fear and immobs onto huge patches of targets. Missions melted under us. Then I moved on to an ITF and was alongside a Dark/Kin Controller. We stacked Possess on Rommy so heavily that he spent the majority of the fight attacking his own Nictus rather than anyone else. You're not going to find a Melee class pulling that off. Every team and every engagement I was a part of last night, had the Controllers been removed from the scenario, would've been dramatically different. Would it have been worse? Not necessarily, but I know for a fact it couldn't have been "better" because the speed we moved at was already blindingly quick. I do know we were safer, buffed to the gills, and had far more debuff options by being a Controller focused group in certain situations, and otherwise having a larger trade off in Support roles across the board.

Why the focus on rotating around Shockwave? Is that for single target? It looks like the other t1/t2's in Claws do more damage. Thanks. This is talked about a couple of times back and forth in the thread already. Shockwave still has really good DPA despite being a cone, but the biggest reason is the fact that it can be slotted with a -20% Res Proc which gives the entire chain around it a significant boost. Otherwise the only option for optimal chain is Follow UP > Focus > Slash, and it takes a ridiculous amount of recharge to get there. Either way, Shockwave with the proc is worth it.

Can we talk about the Elephant in the room here? Stone Melee. Sighs and walks out, mumbling something about 'no love for stoners.'

The biggest advice anyone can give you about this game is "Play what you find fun." If anyone tells you differently, they're lying, or don't understand the core concept of what City Of Heroes is. Given that, your old SG-mates didn't know what they were talking about. There's not really anything wrong with Ice/Dark. Dark Miasma is going to give you a load of effective debuffs, and Ice Blast has a few solid heavy hitting attacks and a location-based Nuke, which is rare. I myself am considering re-rolling an Ice/Dark Controller into an Ice/Dark Corruptor specifically for the increase in damage it'd provide while keeping the theme I was after. Ice Blast will be a pretty significant ST focused set with some good back-up patches. If you want more AoE and room-clearing capability, especially solo, than I might suggest Fire Blast instead (and you could just recolor it blue and pretend it's Ice :D ). Play what you find fun.

Sadly, while a good technique, doesn't change the fact that it takes you out of aura effective range.

What effect, exactly, are you looking for? Effectively Irradiated Grounds will function and appear to act no differently than any other damage aura, it's just important to know that there are some slight differences in its actual functionality. In regards to "standing still" I get why you might think that, but no, you don't really have to. If you jump into the middle of a mob and the patch drops, or by the time you get your PBAoE off and it drops, that mob is effectively stuck and/or clustered there already and it'll do its thing just fine, you can move around as you need to still and, eventually, it'll re-center on you. I'd dare say that it ends up being a more effective tool that Quills. Your damage auras require you to be in the group, IG lets you plant it inside the mob and walk away. It'll still tick just like any other damage aura, slot like any other damage aura, look like any other damage aura. I'd say one of my biggest gripes when I ran Spines characters (Spines/DA and Spines/Elec), was that when I bounced around for positioning on Throw Spines, I was effectively loosing damage on the mob because my auras traveled with me. The ability to jump in, Burst, and then jump out while leaving behind one of my "auras" is actually pretty awesome.

Was just about to post on this myself. Wroth mentioning though that it isn't a typical "aura," the power drops a PBAoE pet every 5/s. This generally isn't an issue, but there is a potential delay in between mobs, or if the power drops during travel. However, I believe it's stronger than Quills.

The animation is 3.5 seconds. The game doesn't directly give this, but you can find it in the trigger effect times.

As some others have pointed out, one of Dual Pistols biggest struggles comes down to the fact that it doesn't have supplemental damage boosters inherently in the set beyond being able to toggle on things like Incendiary Ammo. However, there's a lot of leverage power in the debuffs you get from the un-swapped "basic rounds." There's also a pretty wide amount of leverage in its AoE capability. Two actual AoE's and a fairly decent cone attack is more than most sets get. Recently poured more investment into a new DP/Cold/Soul Corr. Currently in its late 30's, about to break into 40. The build I'm holding on to for him has the potential of spiking -94% Resistance backed by a Perma Soul Drain. In theory he should be able to stand on par with a lot of other mid to upper tier blast sets in such an extreme scenario. Dual Pistols alone gets -15% out of one attack (Precise/Precision Shot, name?) plus Annihilation -20% in that attack, and the ability to drop another Achille's Heel proc into Pistols for -45% Res on its own which easily makes up for not having an Aim/BU power inherently in the primary like any other Blast set. Yes some of the powers are super flashy, but with a bit of build magic, the set should perform pretty well. And I have no intention of using the Swap Ammo gimmick, I don't think it'll be necessary (and it disables the inherent -15% Res effect).

When you say "DS" is that supposed to be Devastating Blow, or Concentrated Strike? And did you do any other runs besides one? Given the scaling of damage, just curious where you ended up at 267 without the other Incarnate abilities in the mix (mainly just being t3 and not having an interface in the mix). I've run multiple combinations of the chains, with having Death Shroud in that mix as well, with similar slotting, and still didn't get to those values without a T4 Musculature and Degen Core involved.

I've heard this preference stated before, but I don't quite get why - I must be misunderstanding how the max hp debuff proc plays out. Can you explain why this outperforms the Reactive -res and moderate fire proc? Reactive is still trying to work off a full value of HP whereas Degenerative is reducing the actual total value, and thus the total time required to kill a target. Imagine a straight drag-race track. I take two racers and start them at the same point, and they peel out for the end line. The track is 1,000 feet long for the Reactive driver, and their car goes 1 foot per second faster than the other and clears the track in 60/s (16.667 f/s), however the Degenerative driver moves their finish line closer by 250 feet, and traveling at 15.667 f/s, crosses their line at 48/s. So if I Pylon has like 30,000 some-odd HP, the Degen user has dropped it to ~26,000 (I don't recall the exact values at the moment), and also effectively changed the HP/s it regenerates (Regen is based off Max HP, it's a percent value of that total to get HP/s). Doing both those things creates an uneven field against the Reactive user. I've scoured over the old Archived Pylon thread for other information recently and the consensus at the end of that thread was Degenerative Core was overall better compared to any one other variant. They're not necessarily dramatic differences, but they're still notably apart from each other in most cases. The closest is obviously Reactive (either form) compared to the other remaining options. You are right on the stacking concern though, we're very likely tripping over each other with Interfaces anyway, so it only has real precedence in limited or solo engagements.

Unfortunately, despite the "on paper" appeal of Concentrated Strike, it in fact, still sucks. It's not because of being rooted, or a long cast time, but, actually yeah it has a lot to do with its cast time. In a sustained DPS chain, CS takes 3.036 (w/ Arcana) to activate. If it was a guaranteed-hit power every single time then it wouldn't be such an issue, but that attack can miss, and when it does, it hurts. BAD. So much so that in consistent testing over a lot of Pylon runs, using Concentrated Strike in an attack chain nets equal, or lower overall total DPS compared to just running QS > SB > BB on repeat. For Stalkers this is just as apparent as it was for Scrappers, except they're adding in AS into the mix. AS > SB > BB > QS does better consistent DPS than having CS in the attack chain because of the chance that it will fail, and historically (again, from a LOT of testing) any DPS chain relying on CS will consistently be worse on average than one without it. On top of this, one of the Stalker procs is a 5% to refresh Build Up on each attack. BU only refreshes on CS when it manages to "critical" (which is not guaranteed, and in testing happened rarely following AS, despite having the Hide proc). Something you have to account that most don't when they evaluate probability for an attack chain is that CS takes 3.036/s to animate (with Arcana). I can activate both SB and BB in that same window, and be started on QS by about .2/s. That comes out to be (using Scrapper values, unenhanced) 191.55, against CS's 222.7. Given how easy it is to slot the early tier attacks (don't really need a lot of Rech in them to get the chain), there will be room to toss a proc in each attack (of some kind), meaning their potential for damage growth is 3x more exponential than CS is in that same time frame. Add that in with the fact that if CS fails just once in a given loop, the QS>SB>BB chain instantly becomes the "higher" chain. And as for Power Siphon, as I did touch on why it doesn't work with Stalkers, that 20% chance does not happen nearly that often. An entire chain with CS involved still consumes 6.864 seconds. Power Siphon has a 20/s duration and does not stack itself, so there's a minimum expectation. In 20/s I'd have ~3 chances to refresh, but is only a 20% chance, which is 1 in 5, and in 30/s I'd only have 4 chances, and that's assuming I don't miss that magical refresh-intended-roll. With enough recharge globally in a build, Power Siphon can be brought down to at least a 30/s recharge anyway, so I'm not really saving myself anything, and actually coming out ahead statistically. Like I said, looks great on paper, in testing however... not so much. Edit: missed a / on an italic code.

Correct. Good luck to a scrapper thinking they can pull a credible amount of aggro from my Spines/elec brute. But I don't want my scrapper to pull aggro from your brute or a tank. I want you to hold the boss/av's attention while I quickly kill it. Kill the mob fast enough and there wont be anything to Taunt. Problem solved. This is the issue I've created with my current Scrapper project. Jump into mob, melt mob, jump into next mob, Tank watches absent-minded wondering when to Taunt, never gets chance. I've even teamed with a few Tanks who only bothered to toggle-up and Taunt when a room had more than 20 immediate targets in it, just to catch the overflow of aggro that I would've hit cap for. After the room was clear, they'd back down again. It wasn't to "let me tank" but simply because of the speed I travel at, there's really just not enough time for it to matter for them, and then I'm off into the next mob, and I definitely don't need saving from the Alpha at capped for most (and near capped for the rest) resists, along with Soft Cap Melee, S/L defenses. I tend to feel like Riddick. "There's only one pace, mine. You wanna tag along, then keep up, cause I'm not coming back for you."

I did some more testing (now that Test is back online) with Rad/DA. I quoted out my previous runs for comparison, I didn't go as extensive this time around because I kept getting repeatedly swiped by the Dropship tonight and it kinda irritated me enough that I quit running Pylons. Getting triple-hit while in the middle of Devestating Blow and dying was... super frustrating. Changed a couple of things in the routine. I removed Achilles from CS altogether. Irradiated Ground now contains both -20% Res Procs. I added Radioactive Smash into the build so I could test with it, but also have Devastating Blow available. I robbed a few random slots from non-impacting-performance defensive sets to do this. I wanted a more clear picture of Radioactive versus Proton Sweep. I am still convinced that Radiation Siphon is worth keeping in the chain because of its guaranteed contamination proc when it consumes Contamination and is the only time I see a consistent activation of the Contaminated proc effect, and typically occurs 2/3 rotations, best average, and if DB doesn't manage to create Contamination immediately after Siphon, both Siphon and DB will have a chance to apply it each in the following cycle. Same speculations as before, T4 Core Musculature, Core Degen, Core Assault (Passive Only), Core Ageless (Purely for Rech) 5:01 (255) // 4:47 (261) - Using the same chain as I was before (CS > PS > RSiph > DB), as mentioned, all I changed was where the procs came from. 5:19 (248)* // 4:43 (263) - Cycled out PS and placed in RSmash** using its same slotting * KB'd 3 or 4 times, plus several noticeable misses on Devastating Blow. It was pretty... *ahem* Devastating. **I ended up with about a .5/s gap in this chain so I ended up cycling in an extra CS because I... really didn't have a choice. I used that extra CS gap for BU, Hasten when it was due, and when Ageless was up I dropped both CS out and just cycled RSmash > RSiph > DB. These following time tests were done first just as a curiosity. I ran CS > RSmash > RSiphon. I had started one Pylon with PS in the chain as well, but I noticed how dramatically slow it was going so I pulled PS out and noticed a significant increase, so these two times are after that. 4:58 (256) // 4:53 (258) - These are the only two tests I've run at all with Radiation Melee that have been this close to each other. Also want to note that these two times are better than any time I achieved before the proc move, and are very close to the times I've gotten (so far) post proc move with chains including Devastating Blow in them. This chain is also exclusively focused on Radiation Siphon being the biggest hitting attack of the three, is actively consuming contaminated, and is still producing a DPS that might prove to be more functionally consistent than a DB inclusive chain. My intention hadn't been to remove Proton Sweep for the cone, but given that it doesn't spread Contaminated (not ST attack), and it is definitely appearing to be an inferior choice to Radioactive Smash, I think I might be performing another Respec on Public. Limited runs, but best time so far has been with Smash/DB Inclusive, sans PS chain at 4:43, but two runs with wild variance (36 second spread). CS>Smash>Siphon however has been the only time I've gotten two relatively back-to-back times at only five seconds apart, and only a 10/s offset from the DB chain (which at these times is only 5 DPS difference). I have a feeling that Radiation Melee may be secretly built on the same principle that Kinetic Melee was with its early-tier attacks versus its top choice T8/9. If anyone else has a Rad to throw at it, I'm proposing CS > Smash > Siphon as the "optimal" (consistent) chain, and CS > Smash > Siphon > DB as the "peak" (but high risk with misses) chain. I'm about ~20 Pylons in to this test now (13 posted, 3 other failed attempts recorded on my post-it, and about 4-5 Dropship death-failed-attempts) that's giving me a lot of swing info on this.

Could everyone please state WHICH T3 or T4 you're using? I just crafted a T3 degen (best time with t4 reactive (75% debuff/25% fire) is 3:23. Time with t3 degen (75% chance -max hp) is 3:30 on my claws/sr. Should I have gone the other way on the degen? DoT over -HP? If you want maximum Single Target killing power, T4 Degenerative Core (-75% MaxHP). This is the optimal choice against specifically hard targets where the stacks can matter (potentially some longer-lasting bosses, but primarily EB/AV/Monster/GM). Anything sub boss level, Interface (in general) doesn't really matter because its likelihood of impacting Minions/Lieuts/Most Bosses, is minimal regardless of whether DoT/Debuff route.

Get your chain down and stick to it, even with BU effects, know in advance when and where they NEED to land, and keep them landing there. Also go into your options settings and turn on the actual timer display for cool downs. I did this recently and it helped me nail consistent patterns on my Radiation runs. I was able to see in real-time exactly when my BU was coming, my Hasten, etc, so I could drop it in the right places during my attack chain without being surprised. I also allowed me to que BU even though it hadn't "popped" yet, I knew in .2/s it was coming up so I could prep and be right on the trigger every time. It may not seem like it'd make such a big difference, but execution of the player can easily see one person getting 2:00, and another getting 2:30.

An excellent point, and this is also one of the reasons why the high DPS sets even without -res procs (e.g. Martial Arts, Fiery Melee, Ice Melee) are still pretty strong because of what actual damage they can output in a real gameplay setting. Pylons are fun to beat up, but they should be taken with some measure of caution (and for fun observations, particularly about how the sets actually operate e.g. psi melee). A combination of sustained ST DPS, "feeling the sets out" in a general gameplay setting, and spreadsheet data (which I'm still working on finishing mine) can be used in combination to draw some reasonable conclusions about how the sets are doing. And at the end of the day, concept + a good build supercedes raw potential numbers, from my perspective. Much as I will continue to emphasize, and discuss, the numerical aspects of the game, we each define what is our version of "fun" and actualize it to the best of our abilities. This data can simply help us make more informed decisions and comparisons, when called for. Play what's fun is the call-out of the day, for sure! And for the sake of backing the general concept that's floated across multiple posts in regards to the procs, and in agreeing with Kaeladin's point on when, and where to place them: Yes I dropped them into Irradiated Grounds, but some rule of thumb(s) come about from it--It drops a pet every 5/s, if I leave one mob and go to the next, I could randomly disperse that pet along the way, also I'm mowing the mobs so fast in the first place that the likelihood of that proc mattering is very little, those procs purely exist for heavy targets and stationary targets that I have an opportunity to park with for more than 5/s. Use them, they're great, they'll definitely improve your potential, and your team's potential (if no one else has them, or another debuff going on), but just like Water Spout causes chaos in normal missions, the procs aren't a final end-note and aren't likely to have an impact on 80% of your game play. :)

Dan - I dont know about Scrapper KM, but attempts at using 'T9 refreshes buildup from Hide' on Stalkers proved a pretty hardcore failure - theres no way to use your T9 without making things worse, cause 3 second cast times are terrible. Ive not tried the scrapper/brute/tanker version, but my guess is given the long cast time of the T9, the outcome would be similar. Quoting this whole chain for reference: Yes Concentrated Strike sucks, but Kinetic Melee as a whole does not. Unlike a lot of other sets that have some way of bending their damage through -Res (or other debuffs), KM is forced to just be pure, unbridled power. For the Stalker's their Build Up isn't quite as impressive as what Scrappers get, it's just a standard BU effect (but at 80%), where Scrappers get a stacking flow for 20/s that builds to 156%, so a lot more going on. For Stalkers, in recent testing, I was able to push KM (KM/SR specifically) up to an average of 389 DPS, where my Scrapper (back on Live, I had to go back into the old Pylon archives to find this) was 315 (under the same incarnate/design KM/SR), which is actually an expected value considering crit differences and hide proc'ing. When I added Water Spout with a -Res proc in it, however, I shot up to 455 on the Stalker. A single -20% proc massively shifted my output potential. In both scenarios, yes I excluded the T9 because I have a stupid amount of time playing Kinetic Melee (I absolutely love the design of the attacks and how it flows) and know how detrimental the T9 is to the set. Concentrated Strike is great as a flashy one-off attack, maybe a Minion killer, but its 3+/s animation really hurts when it misses in a DPS chain. I'm experiencing the same issue with Radiation Melee's Devestating Blow, but unfortunetly there's not really a good alternative in that set. For KM, the attack chain breaks down to its first three attacks on repeat. Think about that... the first T1, T2, and T3 attacks... do 315 DPS. No other set has that kind of flux power on a Scrapper. For Stalkers, the chain ends up being the first three plus Assassin's Strike (AS > SB > BB > QS on repeat). Edit: The short end of it is Kinetic Melee is definitely not on the low-end.

I've been running around on a Rad/DA that has been a happy little ball of destructive force, and last night an Ice/SD Stalker gave me a run for my Influence. I will say, we were both heavily IO'd, our set bonuses were a mile long (I had to look). I was impressed enough that I've gotten an itch to maybe roll an Ice/SD myself as a replacement Shield character in my catalogue. I had a DM/SD on Live, very single-target focused, and this (Ice/SD) looks to be an option with some variance and decent speed.

I'd vote for these two.

I remember hearing about that as well. Regardless of whether the two procs stack or not in this specific case, I did fit an achilles into my irradiated ground during my testing. I hadn't initially done it thinking they wouldn't stack. Respec on my Rad/DA today while test is down, grabbed an extra Achilles Heel and parked up next to a Pylon with Power Analyzer open with the IG patch going. Gave a good 20/s to see a consistent pattern and then tossed Contaminated Strike on auto with another Achilles. Only ever got one active stack, and which-ever was the most recent successful trigger was what stayed "on top." Given that, though, it was pretty much Irradiated Ground dropping both procs consistently. A few instances where it dropped for five seconds, and then both -20% procs reapplied again. Whether that's just a stacking issue with Power Analyzer, or what, the Pylon never went below -12%, I'm going to assume it still considers IG as "Me" and only applies the one source. With how consistent IG was though (watched it for six minutes), I think its a safe call to rely on that for both and use that sixth slot in CS for some other proc.

Posted this for a DM/Ice, you should be able to translate it fairly easily into Ice Melee: | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1450;681;1362;HEX;| |78DA65944B6F125114C7EFC02042A18542A5D052CAA342A1D0A26E7C3646D4184B5| |245DDE248AFEDD8E940061ADBA5DF40AB891B9F0BB77E109F3B4DFC0426DAFA58B9| |C3C3FC8FD4840993DFCCB9E7F9BF73A96E557CAF2FDE5B14CAF039436BB7EBB586A| |5B55AD272D71ABA341B52F42E37DDD17F2BF5AA34A42C55346B1D8FB1FE4A45DE96| |665B962E3564FDACB5D1B48477B9D9344AB596942B41FBB1AA997A6BD3D03A7AD3F| |4DB960BFAEA5A4737577DF6DB92D45AF4123DDFD21BA55A4733D6296FADB969D4AB| |5ABB23ADED71EA65866ECB2DF8EABAC447A710655578DF30DF82BE77CCF7E0F007F| |0D52C852976AC2AC614DBE6083303A01A625E464C2C4B211CA35CC7DA812BCCABE0| |C11AF31AD8A61E9DDCA3F3B4C3B6654F318F83B3279827998BA83741F55CA8275C4| |942D92336DDD88B5E3EF7231533DD07A71E3077980FC1E90C6227299F87F379385F| |87920D219F63E80B7A3EF4092C7F06D3E4E3878FF07BD0639C728DB01623AC5F80F| |50BB07EA3ACDF6810BC4B7982B6E85D677097F2C45591FFC6FC0ECEED8153943F24| |BC765FA1DFD023FC8B398DDE53946F0C3D38C60A02BD338BCC18F94458AFC81A7A1| |FD79977C0D83AD3002737408562A33C7734C6F9C936819ACA843D37E91A06B7682D| |8EF95CF127D03EF3143CFC8CF99CF902CCBE04B72936C17D261ABC6F37991A98BCC| |55C614A5E27AD52E8C995625DD3AC679AF54C6FA0FF8CC134C1641667A937CF4C01| |BAE60B98E72BC99DE3F9733CBF93FA2CA096B39087DF5C119C8F2876ADF923D8279| |57C4BEC5BE26F649EBF91720031E510F8C727C402D75A60DF49B57FBEE9479748A8| |FD53DBCD0FAC2E0C58CA0396A30396630396A501CBB2CA65C9A2D8164FA07FAEBBB| |BDEFEFF82508AD0E9C7BECDA124A1C7DC0DCC553C039DF6FE8FCB21EEE7BE4D5176| |F01D161F837F013A33D89A| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Seeing some times for Rad/Bio, and having feared that I just wasn't going to be happy with ST output on Rad without outside damage buffs, decided to take my Rad/DA Pylon Hunting. Didn't go the same path of DB > PW > RS > CS that Kaeladin did. Even with Ageless the recharge just wasn't there long-term. I stuck to keeping Ageless around just to kill the last 15/s of Hasten and that's the only purpose it served for me. Verified I do have the recovery to sustain my build without its other benefits, but for these purposes, I used it, since I ported over to test to get access to it. My build as it sits currently on Everlasting (no Incarnates): 7:15 (215) using (BU > DB) CS > PS > RSip > DB, and BU pops up exactly to fit right before Siphon every third cycle. Intentionally starting with DB to try and set Containment, and then flipping so it becomes the "end" with Siphon (consume) into Blow (rebuild). Stuck with using Siphon because of its practical application in a chain, its the better attack (overall), and despite it "absorbing radiation," it still triggers containment due to the way it stacks (Hit with two types, proc containment, then heal, and absorb radiation from target). Confirmed it repeatedly in the combat log that so long as DB sets containment, Siphon would trigger containment before it absorbed. I'd dare say this was the only situation where containment seemed consistent since the power was forced to acknowledge and react from it. So I took to modifying some things from what I planned, just to see. I have -Res proc in Irradiated Ground (power lays a pet down every 5/s, combat log showed consistent proc at least once every 20/s, so matched duration I needed). Achilles Proc in CS, +50% Critical in Siphon. T4 Musculature Core, T4 Ageless Core (for minimal rech), T4 Degen Core, T4 Hybrid Radial (passive only). Now for the "this didn't make any sense so I kept killing Pylons and it never made sense, so I quite trying" numbers: 6:05 - 232 <-- Got KB a lot 5:43 - 239 <-- Ran again cause, KB sucks even when you have 7pts against it 5:12 - 250 <-- Got bombarded by Drop Ship, activated DR just once, and ended up with a best time? Strange! 5:28 - 244 <-- Ran another because the last time was stupid different 5:20 - 247 <-- Now I'm jealous of the 5:12, what the hell 5:51 - 237 <-- So it looks like this is what happens when you miss DB enough 5:08 - 252 <-- And this is apparently what it looks like when you run perfect, my last run breaker cause I was 3 v 3 on two sides of the spectrum So I guess that shows how much the added +Dam of Bio's Offensive really twists Radiation as well, and I had Death Shroud adding into the mix. I now have to go figure out how to repair some of the configuration scramble I caused to fit Achilles into the build. Edit: Removed a random line missed from deletion before posting.

If you're going to try and Pseudo-Tank, you're definitely going to want to shore-up your defenses. Ice Armor is one of my favorite armor sets, but I only play it on a Tank, and that is the only Tank I ever play (I really don't like Tanks otherwise). I pulled my build across from the Tank and converted it into Scrapper-ese for you, without changing any of your power picks. Ideally you want to have 45% Defenses to your different types in order to stay on your feet. Energy Absorption can definitely help get you there, but it helps to be close, or above and let EA give you extra padding in case you either a) forget to cast it, or b) get hit with a defense debuff. Ice has about 50% DDR, so you'll want a bit of a buffer to help prevent cascading failure. Covering those bases, having Shadow Meld and Icy Bastion will just be sweet icing on the cake for you to handle Incarnate content better. SM > Icy > SM will get you a solid minute of awesome coverage in case you ever need it. This also does have a bit of a high end use, but between Energy Absorption being up every 20-26 seconds and Dark Consumption, I doubt you'll ever really have a problem. This build also doesn't include any incarnate slots, so you're free to go with whatever path you want. The fact you don't have to rely on Ageless or Barrier is pretty nice. You can take Rebirth and get a great heal to pair with Hoarfrost (if you keep Hoarfrost up perma, the +Regen Rebirth will give you a really insane Regen rate for a while, along with Icy Bastion). You'll also be free to take Masculature for the +Dam to bump your ST DPS a bit further, if you want. Or you could take Agility for the over-capping +Def and +Rech, which should get you Perma-Hasten (or close to it), and keep you within Smite > SL > Smite > MG attack chain (best possible). Have fun with it :D Mid's Data Link | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1450;681;1362;HEX;| |78DA65944B6F125114C7EFC02042A18542A5D052CAA342A1D0A26E7C3646D4184B5| |245DDE248AFEDD8E940061ADBA5DF40AB891B9F0BB77E109F3B4DFC0426DAFA58B9| |C3C3FC8FD4840993DFCCB9E7F9BF73A96E557CAF2FDE5B14CAF039436BB7EBB586A| |5B55AD272D71ABA341B52F42E37DDD17F2BF5AA34A42C55346B1D8FB1FE4A45DE96| |665B962E3564FDACB5D1B48477B9D9344AB596942B41FBB1AA997A6BD3D03A7AD3F| |4DB960BFAEA5A4737577DF6DB92D45AF4123DDFD21BA55A4733D6296FADB969D4AB| |5ABB23ADED71EA65866ECB2DF8EABAC447A710655578DF30DF82BE77CCF7E0F007F| |0D52C852976AC2AC614DBE6083303A01A625E464C2C4B211CA35CC7DA812BCCABE0| |C11AF31AD8A61E9DDCA3F3B4C3B6654F318F83B3279827998BA83741F55CA8275C4| |942D92336DDD88B5E3EF7231533DD07A71E3077980FC1E90C6227299F87F379385F| |87920D219F63E80B7A3EF4092C7F06D3E4E3878FF07BD0639C728DB01623AC5F80F| |50BB07EA3ACDF6810BC4B7982B6E85D677097F2C45591FFC6FC0ECEED8153943F24| |BC765FA1DFD023FC8B398DDE53946F0C3D38C60A02BD338BCC18F94458AFC81A7A1| |FD79977C0D83AD3002737408562A33C7734C6F9C936819ACA843D37E91A06B7682D| |8EF95CF127D03EF3143CFC8CF99CF902CCBE04B72936C17D261ABC6F37991A98BCC| |55C614A5E27AD52E8C995625DD3AC679AF54C6FA0FF8CC134C1641667A937CF4C01| |BAE60B98E72BC99DE3F9733CBF93FA2CA096B39087DF5C119C8F2876ADF923D8279| |57C4BEC5BE26F649EBF91720031E510F8C727C402D75A60DF49B57FBEE9479748A8| |FD53DBCD0FAC2E0C58CA0396A30396630396A501CBB2CA65C9A2D8164FA07FAEBBB| |BDEFEFF82508AD0E9C7BECDA124A1C7DC0DCC553C039DF6FE8FCB21EEE7BE4D5176| |F01D161F837F013A33D89A| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|