Zect

Your post is so wrapped up in your own little bubble of self-interest it's hilarious, but you do get one thing correct, which is that issues with procs and tankers (since we're on the subject) are multifactorial in nature. Firstly, damage procs need to be work differently from other procs, such as self-buff or possibly even debuff procs. The PPM system as-is is reasonably fair for damage procs with exceptions I will discuss next. However, when you can manipulate the system in order to keep certain self-buffs perma (tanker ATIO) or make them nearly guaranteed (gaussian) that contradicts the design goal of a probability-based event in the first place. I think we should be more open to the fact that different categories of procs can and should have different rulesets, with certain specific powerful procs having their own unique firing conditions - see preventive medicine for an example currently live. Secondly, the interactions of all procs with aoes and especially rech buffs need looking at. All the ways that procbombing builds currently cheat the system and end up with higher procrates than intended should be addressed. This includes using aoes to effectively roll multiple times to fire a buff proc, and sourcing rech from set bonuses and permanent buffs to avoid taking a hit to procrates. Thirdly, there need to be greater trade-offs in the game. I am personally a fervent advocate of the idea that an appropriately geared defender should be able to do the same damage as a scrapper, or even more. This adds valuable build diversity and replayability to the game - if I want a high damage character, you can tell me "just go play a scrapper", but finding ways to build for high damage on other AT's presents a build challenge, and that's the essence of a game. However, to me, there must be a trade-off for your strengths. If the defender wants to deal the same damage as the scrapper in the same safety, that's fine - but it had better have zero support capacity, including zero ability to magnify damage for other players through -res or +dmg. Problematically, this is not the case in coh, because in coh procs are only bonuses and never maluses or even sidegrades. The current situation is imbalanced not so much because tankers can have great damage, but because the tanker can clear as fast as the ostensibly DPS AT's while still keeping most of their tanker scalar HP, armor toggles, debuff resists, sustain and aggro control. This brings me to my final point, which is: Fourthly, the way that def and res operate in this game is dysfunctional. Both def and res scale hyperbolically until the soft/hardcap, where each additional point is more valuable than the last. If you have 0% res, and get +10% res, you live about +11% longer against X incoming dps. But if you already have 80% res, and get +10% res, you live +100%, or twice as long against the same incoming dps. In fact, the reverse should be true and there should be diminishing, not accelerating, returns on investment. This is a little-recognized but very major reason why tankers are stronger than brutes: since they are closer to the caps out of the gate they are exponentially tougher, so they have vastly more build capacity to invest in offense. More broadly, this is what actually makes IO builds immensely stronger than SO's and why there will always be difficulties providing a satisfactory game experience whenever both are playing together. Will these problems be fixed? I think in our lifetime we will see some attempt to address #1 and #2. I am personally very eager to see the Aprocalypse (TM) when it happens. When looking at Homecoming team's past changes, both ones that are considered buffs and nerfs, such as the changes to resistance set bonuses, the typed defense overhaul, etc. I think it's pretty obvious that these changes have rejuvenated the build design scene and been highly beneficial for the metagame. I have great hopes for what Homecoming can achieve on this front, and look forward to a new era of procbombing. I think #3 will always persist because attempts to fix it will be viewed, not just as nerfs, but as very significant changes to the game/powersets/gear and those are not politically acceptable to the broader community, especially one as staid and set in its ways as this one. It should be addressed, but I would be satisfied merely with the issue not getting worse than it already is. We saw attempts to band-aid #4 from both Paragon and Homecoming, the former by giving incarnate mobs bonus tohit, the latter by instituting "hard" mode. Given the changes to typed defense, however, I think it's fair to say "never say never" to some possible overhaul of the way mitigation works in this game far down the line.

This build has a number of wasted slots, because you are not paying proper attention to slot-efficiency. And I know from past experience you're the kind of person who's not mentally tough enough to withstand criticism (goes hand in hand with being a forumite guide-maker); I'm posting anyway for the benefit of others who will read this thread. To wit: You choose 3x pounding slugfest (lmao) in maiming slash for 1.25% EN def. That's 0.625% Defense Per Added Slot. If you really want EN def, you should've slotted another set of 3x eradication for 3.13% EN def, or 1.565% DPAS - some 2.5 times as efficient. For example, you could complete the 6x hecatomb in maiming, and slot savage leap as say 3x erad 2x oblits 1x armageddon (chosing pieces with the damage procs and boosting the remaining pieces +5 to compensate for enhancement values). This effectively moves the purple set bonuses to maiming slash and gains 2 nonpurple damage procs in savage leap. Moral of the story: prioritize slotting sets that give the most slot-efficient bonuses, and be creative about making up the set bonuses you need elsewhere. Another example is how you slotted for regen. Your regen comes from a mishmash of 6%, 8% bonuses and an impervious skin unique. Now, you already have a numina's unique in inexhaustible. If you could take just 1 of those slots you invested to add a +5 Numina's: heal here, you would gain a whopping 38.5% regen due to the combination of the numina's 2-piece bonus and the enhancement value increasing the regen. This also increases our maxhp. Moral of the story: consider whether direct investment in enhancement value gives more benefit than a minuscule set bonus. Further, when slotting a unique consider where a quick 1-3 piece slotting might provide a needed set bonus, taking advantage of the fact you need to slot 1 piece of the set anyway. I also note the 5% heal set bonus from touch of the nictus. I can't tell if this is a halfhearted attempt to build for +heal, however it's worth noting that +heal set bonuses do not work on absorbs, nor regens (it's +heal damage, because healing is coded as a damage type in the game). So this helps the heals from DNA siphon but not, say, your abalative carapace. It's why spiritual isn't automatically the #1 alpha for tanker bios (that, and procbombing) because it is also specifically +heal and not absorb. In general, you chose a lot of sets which stop short of their most efficient bonuses and neglect areas where boosting could save a slot. For example, you have 4x lotg in environmental modification. If you could just spend 1 more slot, 5x offers a 3.75% SL res bonus. That's far larger than the 1.5% SL res bonus you are spending 1 slot in impervious skin for. You chose 5x panacea in abalative carapace. However, 6x prevmed would not only add the unique (which you lack) but stronger set bonuses anyway. You slot 3x shieldwall and pass on the EN res for 4x. etc. However, I will say you did at least one thing right, which is the choice of musculature radial over core. When you have a lot of +recovery/end powers, you can sometimes gain more slot-efficiency by taking a very minor hit on +dmg. Endo sets do not have many strong options at 1-3 slots, so being able to skimp or even avoid that slotting entirely is a good use of an alpha. (Blasters, for example, may also find this worthwhile.) Also, I do commend you for not doing any deceptive mids-warrioring shit, like slotting an FF proc in Kick and toggling it on to look better in mids or setting Invincibility to 10 targets and so on. Forumite builders love doing that, and I just don't understand why. Here's a quick and dirty illustration of what I am talking about. Your build: My improvements. See the empty slots? Those are set bonuses that we have now regained. Would I play this build? No. I usually don't bother with SL def on bio (which is impractical to softcap anyway) but that's a subject for another thread. One final thing: Ageless radial epiphany gives... +85.00% debuff res for the first 30s +42.50% debuff res for the next 30s +21.25% debuff res for the next 60s ... on a 2 min cycle. What this means is that, 50% of the time, a +0 bright nova in the ITF will blast you for -15.75% def instead of -20% and you are un-softcapped anyway and start to defense cascade. Ageless is strong on sets that already have a moderate amount of debuff resist to stack with it. It's because bio has no DDR that ageless does nothing for its DDR (though it can still be a valid choice for the slow res or the rech, both of which this build has a paucity of). Just heal through whatever hits you and forget about DDR. You're not an SR; you don't need no damn DDR.

Effective sapping, and especially sapping as a form of mitigation, requires the ability to floor blue bars quickly - within a few seconds - and then keep it there for at least a while. If you can't drain blue bars significantly faster than people can drain red bars, what's the point? Just do damage instead. So you need some powers that have big -end, and some that have a good amount of -recovery. The good news is that elec blast provides a lot of -recovery on its own, from powers like short circuit and ball lightning; notably both are 100% chance to give -recovery, unlike some other powers. You just need some help on the -end front since thunderous blast isn't up every spawn (as a taoe nuke it has longer rech than normal). My personal favorite is kin. Transference is a huge -55% end and it is available every spawn. And the great thing about a kin sapper is that it's still, well, a kin. You aren't pigeonholed into relying on sapping, or the shocked mechanic, because you still bring massive healing and damage independent of that. Kin is also the least slot-dependent set - so you have ample build capacity to invest in whatever you like. kin/elec/soul. Try it. Powerboost, soul drain, transference, short circuit. If you want to branch out, you may consider blaster sappers, which are again very strong because they still do blaster dps outside of the sapping aspect. elec/elec is a classic combo with powersink, but elec/nrg is also very strong with its powerboost.

When both are fully geared, tanks generally have the potential for better dps (as measured by clear times, they are still somewhat lower on a pylon) than brutes, though it does require some familiarity with build design skills. Tanks have better defensive stats out of the box, so tanks should trade-off their defenses for offensive power; that is to say, they should invest less in mitigations (since they already have that in excess), in order to invest in offensive options like procs instead. On my brutes I still have to putz about softcapping and hardcapping and whatnot. On my tanks they are all defense softcapped and nearly res hardcapped out of the gate and most build capacity goes into procbombing. The tank melee damage scalar is now 0.95, in addition to having increased area of effect on area attacks (applies to epic aoes as well). If you think 95% of blaster melee damage and 22.5 ft radius dark oblits are weak, well...

No, this build is terrible. You don't skip crushing uppercut; it is the highest DPA attack and potentially +1 purple damage proc because it accepts unbreakable constraint. Skip either the T1 or T2 attack instead. Positional defense sets on a typed defense build* - classic amateur mistake. For example, they slot 5x frozen blasts for 2.5% FC def when they could've just added a 6th blistering cold for 5% FC def. Whoever built this just wasted you 3 slots and >100 million inf in winter IOs. This is basic incompetence by someone who knows diddly squat about build design, brutes, WP, or the invention system. Also - they evidently don't know how to build for EN def (possibly only having experience building positional defense armors). * However, the 4x unbreakable guards are okay because unbreakable guards are not bad anyway for the EN res. If you're already slotting 3x unbreakable, an additional slot for 1.56 SL def is still a good deal. An alternative slotting for resist toggles on typed defense armors is 3-4x reactive armor for 1.5% SL res and 1.25% SLEN def - this too is valuable because EN def is rarer on armored AT's. Splitting up the brutes fury ATIO 3 and 3 is good (most slot-efficient SL def in the game) but not the unrelenting fury. Splitting unrelenting up gives 16% regen twice. Slotting it 6x gives 6% SLENFC res on top of 2.5% SL def. If you have a modicum of common sense, you should be able to identify which option is better. Put 6x unrelenting somewhere else (maybe spinning strike). Remaining slots in the powers that took 3x brutes fury can be filled with procs or left empty - it's acceptable to underslot some weaker powers on brutes since their melee dmg scalar is weak and most damage comes from the fury mechanic. Which clown puts an endredux IO in indom will instead of muling an lotg or something actually useful there, then turns on the FF proc in kick to deceptively make the build look more impressive in mids? Microfilament in swift... Lol. Lmao, even. With one of the slots you saved add a Numina's: heal in health, boosted to +5, for 33.2% regen. If you want to build for regen, this is the way to do it - make sure you get up to the rule of 5 cap on 12% regen bonuses. RTTC, HPT, fast healing et all can all be 1-3 slotted with numinas, boosted to +5 to ED-cap heal enhancement where needed. I don't like to ask people to change epics because it is often a matter of concept and playstyle. However A WP build should not need the endurance from phys perfection unless procbombing which this build is not. If possible, take an epic with good blasts instead or that offer interesting slotting possibilities. Soul with its gloom that has really good DPA and darkest night to cushion hits when they do get through is so much better on top of offering interesting slotting possibilities. As for the regen, even 2x apoc in gloom gives +16% regen. Phys perfection is only 26.6%. And if you must take energy epic, at least get the best power - energy torrent (despite the description, it's knockdown on brutes). This is a quick and dirty illustration of what I mean. Same rech, same SL res, more EN def, more exotic res, more regen, more HP though its not shown in the window, better attacks, two healing procs, -res proc, 1 free power choice, and less wasting 30M or so on vanity IO's in swift. I'm a trillionaire, I just hate waste. Note which IO's are boosted. Shield wall is a PVPIO and can be safely boosted +5 without losing enhancement value when exemplaring. Same with purples. IO's in partially slotted sets and low-level (20-35) IO sets are boosted to increase their enhancement value. And mids crashed when I tried to export, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Think carefully which pieces of each set should be slotted, and come to your own conclusions.

Firstly: regarding your health condition, my sympathies and I hope you find some way to continue enjoying the game despite it. Seizures are one of the common health risks associated with video games. The solution that immediately comes to mind is some kind of FX mod - unfortunately, you may be forced to make your own if the trigger for your condition is not prevalent among the general population. Secondly: There may or may not be some decline in cultural norms (as you put it), but there is a reason for the reaction of your team. Humans all suffer from a natural cognitive bias where we tend to rely on our own perspective too much, and fail to view things from the perspectives of others. This is known in psychology as egocentric bias (unrelated to the lay concept of egotism). So, for example, your teammates are not able to conceive of a health condition that requires turning X power off because they have never experienced one. Or, they assume that if they suffered from such, surely they would either stop playing the game or have found some way around it, because they rely on their own POV to imagine what they do in such a situation, rather than trying to adopt yours. The egocentric bias also has a number of related effects, one of which is that we tend to believe that our intentions, thoughts, priorities, etc. are more apparent to others than they really are, and that those around us have similar outlooks to us. So, conversely, you may assume the amount of discomfort you are experiencing or the necessity of them turning off their powers is more apparent to your teammates than it is. Or, you may imagine that if you were in their shoes, you would agree to turn off the offending power and then assume that this outlook is shared by the team. I need to emphasize that I am not accusing you of being illogical or anything; cognitive biases are just human nature, no less normal than the blind spot on the human retina. I think everyone has their own cross to carry - even people who are outwardly successful, happy or healthy may be hiding some hidden problem or trauma. So, yes, we should be kind and accepting, as much as possible. However, it's always going to be difficult to request others to accommodate to you; they may be struggling themselves and preoccupied with that, or they may just be laboring under the heaviest cross of all, human nature. All we can do is, where possible, strive to put on our own life jacket first, so that we can be the one handing them out to the next person.

Blapping is an option for blasters to increase DPS by replacing weaker ranged attacks with stronger melee ones, and/or leveraging powerful pbaoes and damage/debuff auras. Most blaster 2ndaries have access to a T2 (eg. fire sword) and T9 (eg. golden dragonfly) attack, or equivalent. Not only are these attacks typically stronger than the T1 and T2 ranged blasts of blasters, they offer the opportunity to add additional purple damage procs or other unique procs. Soundsplitter, for example, adds 2 purple damage procs to your rotation that you otherwise won't have. Furthermore, some 2ndaries reward melee play by offering damage auras or buff/debuff auras, such as /rad. Some have also taken to blapping as a playstyle, challenging themselves to survive in close range without the defenses of an armored AT. This comment has a disappointing lack of murderous intent. Are you certain a blaster is the right AT for you? The basic blaster playstyle is: Slot the gaussian chance for build up proc in either aim or BU. Press both aim and BU. You are now nearly damage capped. (100% base + 100% BU + 80% gaussian's + 62.5% aim + 120% enhancements and musc alpha + 20% IO set bonuses and assault hybrid passive component = 482.5%, cap is 500%) Press the nuke and delete 90% of the spawn. You may need to move close to the enemy first. Clean up the survivors of nuclear bombardment two surviving half-health bosses with whatever attacks you have, melee or ranged. The melee AT's do more ST dps under optimal conditions, but blasters as a whole are hideously overpowered in the modern coh meta.

Fwiw, I agree with you; rad is really strong on all 4 armored AT's (and flat-out nerf-worthy on the 90% res cap ones). Even the defensive weakness is probably somewhat overestimated in the modern meta where the game is overflowing in +def buffs. Drive your /rad stalker to an itrial or 4* anything, and see how long you can go without being incarnate-softcapped, lol. Incidentally, I must say that I'm impressed. Every large build compilation on the forums I have encountered until now is garbage. This is the only one I have seen so far where the builds seem to be designed by someone with an overall competent grasp of their AT and powerset mechanics, the invention system, and build design principles; and who is not engaging in mids-warrioring (ie building for what looks pretty in mids, not what works in the game), nor doing dishonest shit like toggling on incarnate powers or setting invincibility to 10 targets to give a misleading impression of build capabilities.

A general framework for a blaster, any blaster is: 3 single target blasts (generally, pick the 3 highest DPA ones. Open mids, windows > power graphs > sort by damage / animation) Nuke (T9 from the primary) at least 2 aoe's, can be from primary or 2ndary aim and build up for sets that have them, take both if available sustain power from the 2ndary (the one that gives endurance and some form of HP restoration or absorb) dps support power from the 2ndary. This can be a damage aura, self-buff (eg +rech, +tohit) or foe debuff (-res, -regen) depending on set Not 'mandatory', but nearly always a good idea to have: 1 melee attack - allows you to risk melee to gain DPS by replacing lower-DPA ranged attacks in your attack chain, and provides access to melee sets for set bonuses Your ranged immob if the 2ndary has one - prevents AV's from running. Also a 2nd attack usable when mezzed, it typically has DPA close to a T1 blast Obviously, individual preferences and build goals vary, so you will find builds that do not follow the above yet are successful; but you cannot go far wrong with this setup, and it will go almost anywhere and do almost anything.

I call a spade a spade; if I think suggestions are bad, I say they are bad. I am straight-talking and blunt, as many will attest. You're more than welcome to speak to me in the same way, and say the same things about my suggestions. Crashless nukes have never been subject to a balance pass and are long overdue for one. They are one of the more egregious issues with the current game and there being far too much dps, especially aoe dps, flying around. Right now, the "classic", i.e. formerly crashing, nukes occupy a local maxima of performance where they can be used every spawn and deal enough damage to wipe all non-bosses. Among other balance fixes, I would like their damage and rech increased so that it is pushed far, far out of the 145s sweet spot, and a mild crash of -30 to -50 end added (immune to endredux slotting). This would make nukes more rarely and more thoughtfully used, but far more impactful when used, as befits a T9 power. AR and archery should be the only sets allowed to have truly crashless, low-recharge nukes. But that's a topic for another day. For now, we can all leave aside such odious matters as the oppressive, unfun blaster meta, and applaud the OP's suggestion.

With the exception of requests for costumes/power customization, this forum is often filled with munchkin whines thinly veiled as suggestions, with little concern for such things as variety, diversity, balance, choice, replayability, or even fun, you know, the alleged point of a game in the first place. "Let me take weave without picking boxing first!" cries one baby. "X doesn't do enough damage! Buff it!" wails another. One hopes Homecoming team don't listen to feedback; that would be disastrous for the game. This, however, this takes the cake. What we have here is a reasonable suggestion with clear benefits for all players regardless of playstyle, with well-illustrated examples and some thought given to what implementation would look like. This is the rarest of purple drops: a post on an MMO suggestion forum that is not stupid.

Obviously, YMMV on this kind of thing and there is content in which each powerset shines. However, what I'm trying to convey to OP with my post is that being a 'meat shield' in the sense of a player who protects other players involves more than just survivability and taunts, even those are an important part of the kit. Often, people like OP come along and ask "I want to do zero dps while being completely unkillable. How?!" My facetious answer is, phase shift - does exactly what they ask for. Perhaps ice armor (for hibernate) + concealment is the real turtling meta?

I'm going to posit an unconventional answer for the best meat shield. You ready? It is... Shield. I find that when such questions come up, a lot of the focus seems to be on surviving damage (and surviving only through mitigation, ignoring other tools). However, the meta in 2023 is a fast-paced teaming environment where aoe's are common, fighting above the aggro cap occurs frequently, most tank armor sets operate near mitigation caps, and debuffs, not raw damage, are what typically kills tankers. Actually protecting the team in such circumstances involves much more than just optimizing for maximum EHP. Shield protects teammates with grant cover, and quickly kills minions with its powerful shield charge to reduce the number of enemies below the aggro cap. Shield using the Defense Chain Concept and cycling melee core > rune > owts on a 4 min cycle can achieve defense softcap and resistance hardcap, with superior DDR and only 600-700 less maxHP than an invuln tank. Unlike invuln, it also doesn't lose defense when forced to kite against the hardest hitting foes in game and has superior mobility to get where a tank is necessary. A shield/DM/soul combining self-heals with defender-strength debuff toggles and 22.5ft radius ranged aoe taunts that do damage (dark oblit) is an absolute tanking monster.

This makes the issue seem more serious than it really is. For trollers, most of their dps comes from procs and for doms, most of it from their assault and epic unless you are fire/, which gives them the option of diversifying their damtype (though mind/psi does have its devotees). Using your own source, from 1-20 psi is the 2nd best damtype, from 20-40 it is the 3rd best, and that outdated sheet does not include any of the enemy groups from GR onward anyway. Psi used to be bad in the old endgame, back when everything was malta, carnies, nemesis, rikti and arachnos, but as years went by newer endgame content has generally tried not to disadvantage psi as much, and it is neutral to strong in ITF, aeon, itrials (mostly IDF, some hami and BP) and hardmode. And you want to talk about not making a compelling argument! Lol. I do wish they would reduce psi res on arachnos and beef up other resists to compensate; it's pretty insane that a tarantula has 50% and an augur only has 30%.

This is the only suggestion I have ever encountered in this forum that made me think "yes, we need this". However, I will propose some improvements. The bomb should damage players as well, so that the bomber needs to retreat to a safe distance before setting it off for realism (otherwise you just set and detonate immediately, and it basically becomes a melee attack). I also want to be able to put sticky bombs on teammates, the trainer NPCs, and random passers-by.

elecaff provides mez prot (faraday cage). Unusually, it also protects from sleep/KB/KU/Repel, being one of very few sources of grantable repel prot in the game, no confuse though. The catch? It's only while you stand in the affected area. It's up to you to move the cage around with you as necessary.

While leveling you should avoid leadership (or at least only run it situationally). Storm is the most endurance-intensive support set. Look at the costs of your powers; lightning storm is 31 (!!) end. You almost certainly do not have the ability to support the use of storm powers and leadership powers. Endgame storm plays very differently to levelling storm. Endgame, IO'ed out storm is a high-recharge, high-dps powerset focusing on the use of 4 key powers that every storm should have: Freezing rain Lightning storm Tornado Steamy mist An IO'ed storm can shit out 2x freezing rains, 3x lightning storms and 2x tornadoes at once, buffed by perma-souldrain and permahaste while softcapping with steamy mist and maneuvers. This massive amount of damage, -res and defense is what makes storms formidable endgame toons. The remaining powers are not useless, but situational. Thunderclap may mule a purple or be decent if you have another stun to stack with it (eg oppressive from /soul epic); though the duration is pretty shit. O2 boost is a very weak heal, but the drain resist is valuable and it can mule the prevmed unique (it works all the time, not just when you cast the power). It can also free teammates who eat a wakie. Snow storm is weak but may be helpful for keeping mobs in your freezing rain, especially while solo. Hurricane is optional for an incarnate storm. While potentially useful, and once considered a keystone of storm play, it is not as reliable as +def and no longer critical in the modern game where a stormfender can get 32.5%-45% def to all positions. That said, you should still have either one of gale or hurricane because being able to move mobs around has tactical value. Since hurricane is more useful for leveling builds (who do not have as much def), you can play with it on the journey to 50 and make a decision on whether to keep it when you get there. Remember that hurricane should have a KB2KD in it so that only the repel pushes critters around, and that it should only be used situationally - I sometimes see stormies who keep it on all the time. It is very endurance costly, and competes for blue with the Big 4.

This build is surprisingly good considering that you have chosen ambitious build goals (high res, high rech and some def on the side) which place intense demands on slot-efficiency. The sets chosen are in general strong options for your chosen goals, and I'm pleased to see the use of sets such as purples and bombardments which offer rare combinations of res and rech to help achieve them. However, chasing melee def and then deciding to pass on the 6th piece bonus from oblit still earns you a slap from me. fig. 1: a sinner receives his due punishment. There remain 3 major areas where your build can be improved: One, you should strongly consider a touch of essence proc in dark regen (and slot dark regen for healing enhancement). This has already been recommended, but it was not explained why this proc is so good: as of the apr 2023 patch, it was still coded to be able to fire more than once per power activation. fig. 2: A completely overpowered proc that should be immediately nerfed; 6 procs from a single power activation on 10 mobs. HC developers, take note. This means that with the toe proc in dark regen, it is very common to get back more endurance than you spent and this turns the power into a dual-purpose heal and +end power. With its short 30s base recharge, you may end up getting more blue from dark regen than from dark consumption (with its much longer rech and much smaller area). I don't use this on a lot of my own builds, because I am obsessed with optimizing for single-target fights (and correctly predicted the MDC nerf, hah!), but most players are well advised to take advantage of it. Two, you should build for more slow resist (the exact amount is a matter of debate; I personally aim for 80%-100%). Slows are very common, and deadly to resist sets that depend on quick-recharging heals. Even the council, everyone's favorite whipping boys, have snipers and galaxies. Because -rech tends to come together with -movespeed, poor slow resist tends to lead not only to loss of sustain but also loss of ability to disengage or to kill the offending enemies. Furthermore, slows have less easily-available counterplay (if confronted with -res for example, you can eat orange insps, or if confronted with -tohit you can eat yellows, however options to neuter -rech are less common). I actually find it funny that @Snarky is so scared of resist debuffing on his literally 0% slow resist build when slows are so much more common and more deadly. (I suspect he's really just traumatized by gold brickers.) Three, you would benefit from more even resist breakpoints. For example, if you are able to hit 83-85% negative/F/C res, that gives you the option to easily hardcap all but E and tox res with barrier or a defense amp. You are also overcapped on the 6% FC res bonus which suggests that further efficiencies can be found. I threw together a quick and dirty illustration of what I am talking about: fig. 3: If I were even more arrogant than I already were, I would give this some pretentious snob name like forumite mids-warriors love to do. Say, "Zect's Dark Armor Framework" or "The Night King Special". Here is an example that is resistance hardcapped or nearly there to all but E and tox with either a 7.5% res bonus (defense amp) or a 5% res bonus (barrier T4, yours or someone else's - you will naturally take damage while fighting, so the reactive defense unique will pick up the last 1.6% or so). Note the cloak of fear is no more. It pulses only once per 5s (unlike most toggles) and is only mag 2. In fact, as a /soul, darkest night is stronger than it if you can find the power pick for it, offering a huge -tohit and -dmg debuff. I do not recommend cloak of fear on IO builds. Finally, a note: gloom is good. In fact, it has higher DPA than any of your dark melee attacks, and is better than many melee T9's, at the cost of being a dot. I encourage you to experiment further and consider tweaking your build goals based on your play experience. For example, going for less melee defense or dropping some powers, which may free up build resources to go for a properly slotted gloom. Or, relying on a base empowerment buff +20% rech which may enable dropping ageless for barrier, if you find that the recovery is not necessary with cardiac and the toe proc. You seem to have a decent grasp of build design principles and the IO system.

You cannot rank fender blast sets, or even place them on a tier list, because that implies a 1-dimensional axis of performance (e.g. DPS rankings), wheras fenders pick their 2ndaries for various reasons. Fender blast sets are best understood as 3 interlocking circles on a venn diagram: The debuffers - sets such as /elec and /sonic which construct build strategies around the 2ndary effect The procbombers - sets such as DP and water who synergize well with the PPM mechanic The blasters - sets chosen for the properties of the attacks themselves (DPA, damtype, area, radius, etc.) such as fire which has a good damtype and still does decent DPA even with fender scalars, or psi which is strong in hardmode against psi-vulnerable EB's such as ITF beasts and aeon brickernauts. For example, DP is a strong procbomber set; however, unusually it offers a means of getting -dmg and has an attack that does -res (intersection with the debuffers). An kin/elec aiming to floor AV endurance completely (sadly nerfed in i27p3) and a kin/DP aiming to procbomb while leveraging -dmg against AV's and tough targets are completely different beasts. I know that some only want others to tell them which cliff the lemmings are jumping off so they can join in, but such an approach works poorly with support toons. Careful consideration of your build goals, design priorities and target content are important to produce the fender you want to play; otherwise, all you're likely to get is some forumite foisting their personal biases on you.

Less an AT, but an entire powerset category: support. Other powerset categories are quite same-y. If you've played one blast or armor set, you've played most of them. Oh, the animation times may differ, the power order may differ, sometimes you get to choose if you want build up or follow up, etc. Occasionally you get the one oddball, like Mind control not having a pet nor a 90s aoe mez, or TW with its very impactful (heh) momentum system that upends the concept of the attack chain which coh players have used to think about ST DPS for many years. But broadly speaking, most sets within their category are very homogenized and offer only 1-2 powers that may be considered truly different. Lame. The support sets, on the other hand, each offer a radically different experience. An emp spot healing and precision-buffing critical teammates, with an intense focus on individual players' statuses, is a world away from an aggressive kin seeking out optimal targets for FS and transfuse and paying close attention to enemy movement and positioning. A tanky time plowing through the frontline with debuff auras and pbaoe buffs is very different from an offensive storm shredding everything with multiple lightning storms and tornadoes eating up resistance debuffed enemies. In coh the task of surviving enemy fire can be accomplished by such varied means as debuffs, by healing, by mitigation, by offense being the best defense, and by controls and mezzes and repels and blinds. Then to all this amazing diversity and variety, the four AT's with access to support sets each offer a different paradigm of how that support focus may be synergized with a different toolkit. Groundbreaking. Support AT's and the decision to make support powers not only really powerful, but more impactful than personal buffs (as they rightly and always should be), is one of the few things Cryptic/Paragon got right about their combat system. This unique, defining characteristic of this game's combat continues to make it stand out from its trinity MMO competitors. However if you ask me to pick just one AT I would have to say Masterminds. It's very rare to find an MMO with a good pet class, and MM's are one of the few things that still scratch the itch.

Rad has more survivability. Rad has 2 heals to elec's one and indirectly gets +maxhp (due to absorb) while elec does not. Rad's resist holes are extremely mild compared to elec's literal 0% tox resist - in a world where invulns easily get perma 90% psi res, elec is the last remaining armor set with an actual miti hole (which is only really closed by the T9). Elec can be built as a turtle-tank, but its true potential is as a high offense, high durability Main Battle Tank. Many people look at the high base resists and mistake elec for a miti tank, forgetting that IO builds of other resist tanks already hardcap most/all resist anyway. The real use of the high base resists lies in allowing you to divert slots to offense instead while capitalizing on elec's endredux and +rech powers to enable procbombing. My elec/SS has perma 90% res to all including negative except tox (24%), 100% slow res, +205% perma global rech for perma-double rage, and all but 1 attack stuffed with procs. Let's just say that if this tank had been shipped to the Ukrainians, they would be on the far side of Crimea by now. Neither elec nor rad "depend" on mobs being near them in the way that, say, Invuln does (if invuln has nothing in melee with it, it instantly loses like 17% def which means when you take a big hit from an AV, kiting while you recuperate is a trickier proposition), though they both derive mild benefits from having critters in melee with them. My favored tactic is to pull like the next 5 rooms. When everyone is above the aggro cap, it really doesn't matter if a blaster scatters everything with a nova because there will still be 16 targets aggroed on you. Yes, because they are both very good armor sets - though their strengths, as mentioned, lie in different areas (rad slightly more defensive, elec slightly more offensive). All armor sets are broadly viable in endgame. There are even ways around elec's tox issues if you want. I do find rad better for tanking 4* HM (except for 4* Hero1, his sword slashes are one of very few hard hitting cold attacks in the game) simply because it has more sustain and healing is one of the iffiest things to outsource to the team - most coh players are just not good healers. However, you really should not base your decision off the hardmode meta. Most people who fret about hardmode never even play the content and it is a very minor part of endgame so it should not be a major factor in your calculations unless you are wanting to make a toon specifically for it.

You can blap with 0 def and 0 res; I have builds that do. The skill requirement is considerably higher, of course, but on a team it should not be a big issue. Learn to joust (hop between attacks so that your momentum carries you out of enemy melee range while your attack is animating). Queue up attacks between hops so they start animating once you land at the feet of an enemy, then bounce away. Learn to use tools that are not IO's and set bonuses, and recognize when it is not safe to melee. Purples contribute rech and res (specifically, F/C/Psi/tox resist which is not normally a major component of blaster miti strats), not def. Melee def is usually not required on a blaster, blapping or not blapping. Melee def is most important for toons fighting prolonged combats in melee with taunt auras that prevent the enemy AI deciding to run away; on a blaster, by the time you get to that point usually you are dead or the enemies are dead. Blasters can often get by with ranged def alone even if they do venture into melee. More generally, builds can usually pursue one build goal fairly cheaply. Where builds get really expensive is trying to pursue multiple conflicting build goals; for example, a permahasten, SLR softcapped blaster. Or, a procbombing, all resist hardcapped doublestacked rage tank. For that you need slot-efficiency, and that tends to cost. Finally, just putting this out there, you may want to consider not being okay with never having billions, mainly because it's actually quite easy to make money. That said, 99.9% of the content in this game has piss poor reward rates and the megabucks comes from just a few specific avenues - marketing and farming primarily, with things like 4* and hami as a distant third. So if all of that bores you and you prefer to just play for fun, I do completely respect that and wish you well on your billion-less career.

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=brute_melee.dark_melee.shadow_maul&at=brute https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=brute_melee.dark_melee.soul_drain&at=brute Look in the top left corner (next to Activation Details). It says Strengths disallowed: range. So, range enhancement does not work on it. Nearly all attacks from melee powersets are coded this way, except the ones that are specifically intended to be exceptions, like Hurl. Conversely, arctic breath from mako's pool does not have this limitation, and +range does work on it: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=epic.brute_leviathan_mastery.arctic_breath&at=brute Another example. Most tanker melee cones are buffed by Gauntlet to have increased radius. However, tanker PBAOEs are specifically prevented from benefitting, see for example foot stomp: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=tanker_melee.super_strength.foot_stomp&at=tanker (Note Strengths disallowed: radius.) However, tanker epic aoes do not have this limitation. See for example https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=epic.brute_soul_mastery.dark_obliteration&at=tanker You really can have a 22.5ft radius, 16 target dark obliteration or fireball on a tanker. Completely overpowered; abuse ruthlessly and make devs cry.

Given the current meta of barrier stacking, all tanker primaries incl SR are resistance hardcapped or very nearly so regardless of team comp in +4 "hard" mode (quotation marks since it's not hard at all, just gear gated). This is doubly so given you have access to +res from your 2ndary. What differentiates tanks in HM is their offensive power, debuff resistances, access to sustain, and other defensive powers such as absorb and +maxhp that effectively buy more time to respond to damage spikes. As someone who is very involved in build optimization, I need to emphasize that hard mode is really not about uber builds. It's about teamwork, including the ability to take orders, and situational awareness. Any tanker primary can successfully tank hardmode.

If we mean endgame IO builds, SS. No contest. It is overpowered by every objective measure and the only reason it has escaped nerfs is because it is an issue zero set that people have lived with forever and any attempt to balance it results in loud and incessant whines. SS is a top 3 powerset (the exact ranking depends on build design & goals, and target content). What makes SS a strong choice: Powerful soft and hard control in every attack (KD, KU, hold) Powerful high DPA attacks (KOB, footstomp) Powerful constant tohit buff (Rage) that enables procbombing attacks and slot-efficiency gains (for example, needing less/no acc in heals such as dark regen) Powerful constant damage buff (Rage). A doublestacked rage tanker is almost at the damage cap. Ever fancied being your own kin? Powerful proc opportunities (all attacks accept KB sets, KOB accepts hold sets) Powerful, abnormally high radius on pbaoe attack (15ft vs 8ft) Few attacks needed (=more power choices available for mules and epic attacks) Its only real weaknesses are that 1) it gets its one aoe very late, but ever since the change to power order late last year, this has been much less of an issue and 2) it is an endurance-hungry set - it is actually one of the few 2ndaries that can spend all the endurance from ageless destiny. Punch and Haymaker have lower base DPA, but KOB and Footstomp have higher base DPA. Jab and comparisons of tanker T1's are irrelevant now that you can pick the T2 at level 1. SS base DPA: Punch: 36.38 Haymaker: 50.49 KOB: 79.16 Foot stomp: 33.43 (15ft) EM base DPA: Energy punch: 58.03 Bonesmasher: 59.67 TF: 67.85 Whirling hands: 23.65 (8ft) When viewed as a whole, SS is not clearly inferior to most other sets even before factoring in rage. The only real dud is Punch. Typical DPA for a tanker T2 attack is 50-60. The statement that SS has weaker attacks (without qualification) is fanfiction invented to excuse continued avoidance of rage nerfs. Hurl is poor dps-wise, but gives SS access to ranged damage sets such as winter's bite and apoc without needing to tap into an epic or pool power, which is useful in rare situations. As a tanker 2ndary power it also gives another option to place your ATIO's. Hurl for example can mule 3x gauntleted fist 3x winter's bite for 6% ENFC res and 15% slow res and do it all in 1 mule where normally 2 would be needed, saving a power choice. Niche != not great. Not every power has to be useful to every build. Furthermore, set-muling is an important component of a powerset's capabilities and must be fully taken into account. You already concede that this is irrelevant, but I just want to emphasise this is not much of an issue. Rad's primary mitigation is res, not def, and it is one of the sets with the highest eps. Lol.