Doomguide2005

True, Power Sink, along with Dark Consumption and several other powers can return large amounts of endurance to the user. They are specifically designed to do so. The original question was specifically directed however, at Electrical Blasts chance to return some of its -endurance as a +endurance to the blasts user. And that is what I was directing my response towards when I said the conventional wisdom was "no" and not to rely on that +end to help in any notable way. As an aside I had a Mids build back on Live where my Elec blasts (Emp/Elec) were each 6 slotted with the last slot being a Tempest chance for end drain proc (the other 5 being either Decimation or Positron). The build never got realized before Sunset but let us just say extreme recharge plus PBU had Short Circuit recharging in about 7 seconds with about -200% recovery and 70 end drain each usage ... not much had any end to use or recover in short order.

Not sure what you mean @PatriotMusic. Diminishing returns (specifically 'ED' aka Enhancement Diversification) of enhancements is based on the sum of the enhancement values present in a power and their schedule. In that respect diminishing returns in a power doesn't care how those values are generated whether by frankkenslotting different sets, an actual set, HOs, Hydra, or any combination of them.

Which in turn leads to a 'cascading' defense failure. Basically if hit by, for example, a -10% defdebuff and you have, again pulling a number out, 20% DDR, your 48% defense is now 40 and the next blow has a 10% chance to hit rather than 5% ... then the next blow lands and drops you another 8% etc., etc.. But if you're SR that first blow instead drops your defense to 47.5% and even if hit by very nasty streak of hits you'll still be over 45% defense. Basically you'll die while still at the defense cap whereas the no or low DDR character will get heavily debuffed and die while having virtually no defense left. Couple that DDR with SR's scaling resistance is why an SR tank is so tough ... until it runs into things like auto-hit Fluffy or DE eminators giving the surrounding DE +100% to hit which is as good as saying 'auto-hit' vs any defense a character might typically have

Thinking of an utter lack of end leading to an inability to defeat anything so makes me want to try my Ice/Sonic troller again ... oh boy was that painfully masochistic to solo.

This is excellent advice and a tactic I often employed on Live

🤪 oops that came out wrong. I know Triage still stacks. Was meaning rather that my Traps as a result of minimal procs and therefore more recharge both globally and in the powers themselves thru sets, tended to have a relative 'lots' of recharge. Made it much easier to stack not only Triage but my traps in general. And still managing that much recharge is impressive. Also shows how the overall effect of recharge from sets has its own diminishing return

Yeah at least on my trappers on Live their focus tended to be on recharge since this was prior to the proc changes. Triage Beacon was something I could stack at the time, made it worth its usual IO mule status worth while when I could drop 2 or 3+ for a team during an AV fight.

If I were to tweak it for slots I'd be looking at Triage Beacon although those set bonuses would make me think hard about it. Got/getting a little out of date with my game knowledge (dead computer suckage) but I'd also look at swapping the Karma -kb for some other proc. 4 pts should be sufficient ... and if not there's the base empowerment buff and a defensive amplifier to help when you know you'll need it.

Either way the blasts will stack up that resistance debuff against a hard target in a way that pretty much no other blast set can manage regardless of the AT. And Cold will certainly add to that debuff fest.

Well, heh, if that's the case maybe either a Defensive Amplifier or the base empowerment buff would put you over the top too.

Can't look at Mids or in game so couple questions Do we know what magnitude the KB is? And does Elec get resistance to kb/kd or just protection? Edit: Appears that there's no resistance in Elec Armor to kb/kd, just protection which means the mag has to be over 15.578 (per CoD archives) or you wouldn't be getting knocked about. Edit2: A Kinetics Increased Density can provide protection (8 pts on a controller, 10 on a defender) and near as I can tell is stackable from the same caster.

Fairly certain the conventional wisdom is no. Certainly not as it stands currently and as the sole reason to try it. I never noted it on my Elec/Fire on Live (he used blue skittles by the bucket load) and the new sustain in the secondary has so far rendered it moot here on HC.

3 new things ... Nature Affinity (most likely defender), Darkness Control (almost certainly a controller) and Martial Combat (blaster). And at least one old in new AT ... Claws/SR tank

For me it ranges from minimal to I'll respond to another's roleplay but less likely to initiate it myself. And some of that variation is what motivated creating the character. Sometimes I'll create a character more to see how a powerset (or sets) work and at least initially there's no real concept behind them other than that sounds fun or interesting. Other times the theme, concept and story come first even if that mostly resides in my head (and might show up in their descriptive text ... eventually)

Normally I see HOs used for either saving slots or enhancing multiple aspects that aren't normally found together, often both. Rad Infection, for example, they can boost both defdebuff and to hit debuff in a single slot or Membranes which are made to drop into things like Fortitude (buffs defense, recharge, to hit)

Also a good idea, I've done both. A lot of Stormies have end issues and certainly dropping Freezing Rain repeatedly can be costly. Bottom line is getting that recharge down, the rest is really preference and gravy. If slots are tight a pair of +5 recharge IOs is also a solid choice.

Not sure, only thing I can say is I don't recall ever seeing anyone's build slotting it there. I believe the (-)damage portion messes with that option. I have seen HOs slotted in Rad Infection (edit: and Fallout iirc) though.

My concerns with both Earth and Ice would be damage, which is why Storm is so often used as stated above. Not very familiar with Time and I know the set can take procs for adding oomph but not sure if it's enough or not. Then again for teaming it should bring plenty of control and debuff to hold its own

Traps is very potent set. But its also rather difficult to play on a fast moving team ... lots of laying your trap(s), looking up to see the team moving to the next mob having obliterated 'your' mob. Steep curve (or tolerance) to learning how to use traps on such teams. On the other hand you'll be an enormous boon when fighting AV's, Monsters, GMs etc. Your debuffs are potent.

Yep as far as I know the conventional wisdom currently is the procs aren't really worth it. I'd probably lean towards 3 slots --> rech, defdebuff/rech, defdebuff/rech which will get some more defdebuff while hitting ED 'caps' for recharge.

While Quicksand isn't fantastic at higher levels/endgame it is very solid in the early levels. It has three things going for it. The defense debuff helps hitting, it's a patch you can use from behind cover (don't need los) and last don't under rate the slow. It can buy you time as powers recharge allowing you to stack mez while foes try to get to you/the team or just plain get away if you got more than you bargained for coming your way. I've never heard anyone say Earth Thorn Casters and their QS was anything pleasant, iirc they got nerfed precisely because of stacking QS 🤔.

I think Plant/Storm would be an excellent choice. As would Earth/Storm. Traps is also a great secondary especially for solo. Force Field Generator provides defense and perhaps more important while leveling mez protection.

Well I guess a better way to put it is not so much separate as the later weighs heavily on former so while you can discuss both individually the later has veto power. And even more so than Gaussian's you've made a good case why an alternate IO is probably a bad idea for Expedient Reinforcement. Both the +def and + rech are quite desirable and getting one makes getting the other more 'costly' for a build. In this instance you'd be getting both without cost to obtaining the other.

Won't disagree, particularly about the value of +def. But I'd also say that's a separate discussion from the main idea of an alternate enhancement option for sets containing a unique IO.

Yeah can't imagine that would get too out of hand. After all there is the Rule of Five if nothing else.