Zect

I am away on holiday but I was intrigued enough that I had to arrange for someone to do this for me. (corr numbers.) Let no heathen doubt the sacred lore of the double tar patch! Unbelievers will be fed to the fluffies.

Fully saturated soul drain is slightly less likely on fenders than armored AT's, due to the lack of taunt auras to keep mobs tightly clustered around the caster. There is also some value in being able to buff at range and then go in only for the nuke. However, ultimately I'm just being very literal and assuming that OP only wants /dark and not /soul as a D3. Definitely try out soul if you like - it also lets you power boost heals.

D3 was very valued in the days before the softcap meta became dominant, because it very easily floored enemy tohit even without any gear. In the modern age, it is still an effective combo - it's not like any of the powers have stopped working - but what it offers is no longer anything special because +def buffs are everywhere. One recent development is the replacement of pbaoe soul drain with taoe spirit drain. I do not post builds, but here are general notes for constructing a highly efficient D3 that will be effective in all threat environments and mission profiles: Take tactics. Dark miasma's primary weakness is it does not have any -def, so tactics is your primary way of increasing team hit chance. Stack your tar patch (or be close to doing so). Endgame darks have Tar patch recharging in 22.5 to 25.0s to stack the -res against hard targets and increase your dps. This is a unique strength that several other support sets (rad, therm, time etc) do not enjoy. Skimp slightly on defense. Both your primary and 2ndary inflict -tohit, so there is no need to go overboard building for defense. Your target defense varies depending on comfort and your other build goals, usually ranging from 32.5%-40%. (In general, for most unarmored toons 40% is the new 45%; in team content maneuvers are very prevalent (I challenge you to get on a team with 0 maneuvers running. Yep, thought so.) to provide the last 5% and there is no point stretching build resources to go to 45% or beyond, while solo the last 5% is a defense amp away (barrier if you're poor) which as a side effect also deletes mezzes as a game mechanic). Take spirit drain. This is one of the main epic options for getting decent dps as a fender (another being procced GFS) and with a 15ft radius it will generally cap out at 5 targets for a nice +80% damage/+20% tohit. You have now installed build up on a fender, enjoy. Most of your build will be defined by your mitigation strategy. You can generally get R/aoe to 40-45%, or tri-vector to 35%-40%, and SL resists at 50+% (fightingless) or 75% (with fighting) depending on your pool power and incarnate configuration.

Not enough people know about the LFG-port, a feature that's literally been in the game since live. Just pay Penny or Manti a visit if you need to train, or any contact kind enough to stand next to a trainer. Cimerora not on the train? Ouro no go to Croatoa? Not a problem. Remember, LFG stands for Let's F***ing Go.

Oh, it's just the old 801 thread; I thought you'd invented some new test or methodology to gauge armor sets with. For the uninitiated, the linked thread is specifically about 801.A, one of a series of high-difficulty AE missions made before 'hard' mode was a thing to challenge players. The 801.x series has incoming dps and debuffs that are much higher than you will ever expect to see in anything made by a dev. Per the thread, "801.A is 5k sustained dps, with frequent 10k dps bursts, and some 25+k dps bursts, along with -300 defense, -300 resist, -100 to-hit, -endurance, -recovery, -recharge, and just about everything else you can imagine." The higher-difficulty 801s are also all-EB, which invalidates certain strategies and defenses. For comparison, most enemy groups in the 'normal' game at +4x8 do not do more than 1.3-1.5k dps. They can't, because if you raise incoming dps too high, you start making it difficult for the unarmored AT's to play, and that has never been Paragon's design direction. (And I'm reasonably sure, Homecoming's; though I can't speak for either.) The main exception are hardmode mobs. I have also observed Linea play in person, and their playstyle is very different from that of your usual coher. Linea is a lot more like Batman, and will use every resource available. This includes resources that some players consider verboten, like amps and base buffs. So what this test proves is, that in a specific AE mission under incoming dps and debuffs far in excess of what you will encounter in just about any reasonable situation, Batman playing a shield/DM or /rad will be the toughest. None of this is to say I disagree with you; under the conditions described, your conclusion is the accurate one. Rather, my point is to ask the typical audience for this kind of thread - the usual forumite fretting about which armor set is the best/most optimized etc: 1) do you think the threat environment and mission profile described above applies to you, and 2) do you think you are Batman, or at least Robin? If not, your considerations may be very different. If yes, Linea's thread has builds for you.

I'm very interested in your test and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Please state your methodology, I'm excited to go and replicate some results.

DPS. The scrapper forums have always had a notable bias for sustained ST dps, especially of the kind measured by pylon tests, because this is the most easily quantifiable kind. How much it lags behind the other sets isn't really the point, because this is a symptom of a broader problem with balance. The coh meta has generally shifted towards dps to the exclusion of everything else. There is very little tolerance in the community, especially among its most vocal members, for sets that do not offer good dps regardless of what other benefits they bring. The changes that players support are ones that either add dps, or add dps with extra steps (e.g. procs, -res). It is fairly common to hear people opine that "reducing (dps) differences between sets will improve balance". Such utterances sound reasonable at first, until you use your brain and realize what they really mean: there is nothing a power set can offer that is worth a hit to dps.

You see, this is the kind of moxie I respect. When you make a suboptimal decision, and acknowledge that it is suboptimal but that you are comfortable taking the performance loss for whimsical personal reasons. Most of scrapper/stalker FA's issues are not insurmountable with good play and a little help, cough cough soul epic. However for me the lack of aggro aura ended up being a dealbreaker. If you are playing FA you likely want to enjoy Burn. I feel that not being able to keep stuff in the burn patch reliably has a good chance to put a dampener on your inner pyromaniac.

Strictly speaking, you can live without weakauras - with time you develop an internal clock and know instinctively when it's about to crash, glance at the status bar to check if it's blinking, and take action accordingly. Getting to that point definitely still counts as unusually high effort for most of this playerbase, enough that the majority still considers the hard crashing T9's "useless". However, this does reveal the nuance in the OP's original query: optimal in turn raises the question of what parameter we are optimizing for. There is optimizing for least effort spent, and also for most efficient clear times, and also for the widest breath of soloable content, among other possible variables that might be personally important to you. Multivariable calculus anyone?

You build for def but have no steadfast +3 def which gives in 1 slot more def than your 6 slots of gaussians. You build for HP but have no unbreakable guard +7.5% HP which at 4 slots also gives melee def that you crave. When constructing a build, ensure key uniques and critical procs are in the right positions before you go off chasing set bonuses. Take fire blast, not flares. Better DPA and recharges within the animation time of any of your other attacks. Def/insulation shield should be slotted lotg, +5 lotg: D (not D/E) for a 2-slot budget. You don't need the endrdx because it lasts 4 mins and costs only 7.8 end. PFF is one of very few powers in the game that are nigh-useless. You may think it makes sense for emergencies, but if you are old and addled (your words, not mine), you want to avoid powers that require you to toggle them on to avert disaster (as PFF does), because you are less likely to recognize the danger and activate them in time. You want passive defenses and mitigation such as def and res set bonuses, or at least powers that you routinely use every time they are available, such as barrier. Besides, you have PFF, repulsion field and a self-rez, so this sounds excessive to me. Drop it and move the lotg to CJ (loses only 0.34% def to all). When slotting CJ and hover try to use them as your lotg mules. As I have just demonstrated, a single lotg in CJ/hover is slot-efficient because the lotg special boosts def, other defense uniques like kismet, winter's and reactive def do not. Hence, mule the lotgs in CJ/hover, and mule the non-def-boosting uniques elsewhere. Rep-bolt and force bomb are used for their -res, the most important debuff in the game. They are a critical part of FF's arsenal, should not be skipped, and should be taken at the earliest opportunity (level 4/28). Damping is overslotted. It is a location aoe not a toggle, and the cost is low, so you don't need endrdx. Slotting def enhancement increases the strength of the -def resistance. This can be worthwhile, but you can cap it with 1-3 slots; there is no need to give it 5. Dark embrace is underslotted despite the effort you put into chasing res bonuses, a classic case of penny wise, pound foolish. Slotting in soul transfer and inferno should be swapped. Inferno is the dps power, so it should get the set with the better damage proc, better endrdx and the -res proc. This can be chalked up to playstyle differences but you do not need melee def as a hoverblaster. You have no powers that require hanging out in melee, except for briefly dipping in for an inferno. Armored toons need melee def, because they both stay in melee for prolonged periods AND often have aggro auras that make mobs cluster tightly around them and not run, you do not. This is a very minor gain, but purples and pvpios can be boosted +5 without losing set bonuses when exemplared. For all your fear of dying I am surprised to see you have no prevmed proc. It can be useful because the chance to proc goes up when you are at low HP. This is a minor nitpick but maneuvers is overslotted. 4 slots is the max number of shield walls you need, for the EN res. Mitigation toggles typically do not need more than 3-4 slots because you really only want 3 things from them, def/res, endrdx, and uniques/procs. There are a few exceptions (a few tankers may find it worthwhile to have a 6x unbreakable guard for the res, on some builds with poor set diversity 6x glad armor is a way to get ranged def from a power that normally doesn't give it) but in general you do not need to slot them too heavily. No spirit drain. Spirit drain is very good even though it can now only max out at around 50% uptime, unlike the old soul drain (note: duration is 15s, mids is incorrect). Aim + spirit drain + inferno. You seem to be taking clarion radial for the +special. Because you already have mez prot vs all but sleep from disp bubble, a potential alternative is to take soul (not dark) mastery, which offers power boost, soul drain and dark embrace instead, but no self-rez. This can then free you to take a different destiny, either barrier or ageless, the former of which will result in higher def across the board for you and your team. Only you can decide if you die often enough to neez a self-rez, though. You seem to be using support hybrid to softcap. As a note of caution, support hybrid is not permanent. When activated, the toggle stays active for 2 mins; then it detoggles on its own and starts recharging, which takes another 2 mins. Hence, its uptime will only ever be 50% at most. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm talking down to you and telling you lots of things you already know, but I've already seen multiple basic misconceptions in this build, so I'm being thorough. Your overall build goals and incarnate strategy can be rethought. Right now, you have agility. Agility is a defensive alpha. It tanks your proc chances and hence dps, and in return, both boosts def and frees you to chase def bonuses without regard to rech. If you're using agility alpha, you should cut some rech bonuses and try to hit 40% or 45% def to R/aoe without hybrid. As it is, you have "too much" rech (hasten is far above permanent at current rech levels) and "too little" def if we discount the def you are getting from hybrid, which is not permanent. A fightingless R/aoe softcap is easily achievable with 3 +def pool powers and agility alpha: This is with support hybrid OFF and hasten at a rech of 120.1s. 4 slots to spend. Your -KB is in the gladiator's armor 3x bonus. In fact, agility is not required: FF has no long-recharging powers that require hasten. It is perfectly fine to drop agility for some other alpha, usually musc radial or intuition radial (musc would also keep the endmod bonus), buff the def a little to compensate, and just live with hasten being 2-8s off perma. Put an FF proc in force bomb or something, if it truly bothers you. My own fire/FF runs musc/barrier/assault with tri-vector softcap and soul mastery.

Many large build compilations are full of garbage. Relying on one can be hit and miss. If you're lucky, you might merely end up building something that's horribly-optimized or severely outdated. If you're not, you may build something that falls far short of what's advertised, while getting hit by someone's misinformed opinion of what a toon can, should, or must do. Therefore, I am extremely pleased to look in here and discover builds that, in general: Leverage key strengths/synergies of the AT/powersets Prioritize high slot-efficiency Carefully consider the placement of key procs and uniques Choose and meet appropriate stat breakpoints (minimize wasted stats) Avoid misleading/deceptive build presentation (no toggling on destinies, FF procs etc.) I've only looked at a few, because there are so many, but what I've seen is very promising. Some things are a matter of opinion, some efficiencies can be found, but as a whole, it's delightful to see builds that are crafted with thought and care and with close attention to how they will function in live combat conditions, not merely to chase numbers in mids. The only thing that is really missing is a detailed breakdown of the threat environment and build goals each one is designed for.

Going from 2x +5 rech commons (the standard slotting) in haste to 3x +5 rech commons is the equivalent of +7.95% rech in haste. This is potentially slot-efficient considering +7.5% rech is a 5-6 slot bonus in most sets that offer it. The reason this is not commonly used is that it applies only to haste itself, and not every power as a global rech bonus would. For most builds that take it, hasten itself is not the rech bottleneck: it is other long-recharging powers and attacks, so just overslotting haste itself does not achieve the goal being aimed for. As with rech set bonuses, the value of haste lies not merely in the rech it gives, but in being able to add rech to other powers without slotting rech enhancement (which devalues damage procs and/or competes with other desired bonuses).

So, as an ardent stormie, I really appreciate this post. It is clear that you have thought seriously about the subject and I can sympathize with the viewpoint of wanting KB to be more impactful - storm is one of the highest dps and most effective support sets out there, but there's just something sad about the lack of ragdolls it's forced into. However, I think the flaw in your suggestion is it doesn't go far enough. Most of what you suggest is designed to make KB play nice with others. But why should it have to? I think we need more radical changes, ones that make tossing hapless mooks every which way the new meta way to play, replacing the current herd n' spank meta. I personally think every damaging attack in the game (yes every single one, from every AT) should KB and the further you toss enemies the more damage they take. Bring on the pinballs, baby!

General blaster loadout, any powerset, any playstyle, any build goals: Always take: 3 single target attacks Mids > windows > power graphs > sort by Damage/anim and take the 3 highest. If your primary has a snipe (power that takes snipe sets like Manticore), the snipe will always be one of these 3 because of quick mode. Some sets can justify taking 4 (BR). At least 1 aoe attack Pick the best one. If you have a choice, Taoes are favored over cones due to the higher target cap. The nuke (9th power) Aim and build up, if your sets have them. Take both if both are available. The sustain power from the 2ndary This is the power that gives recovery and a regen/hot/absorb, available at level 20 on most sets. The dps support power from the 2ndary This power can be a damage aura (/fire, /elec), self-buff (/earth's +acc, /time's +rech) or foe debuff (/sonic's -res, /plant's -regen). /mind uniquely combines this with the sustain power. Nice to have: Melee attacks from the 2ndary. They can increase dps when it is safe to melee by replacing weaker ranged attacks, and they increase the range of IO sets you have access to (set diversity). Some of them are really good (seismic smash). Single-target immob from the 2ndary, to stop AV's from running. 1 more aoe attack, primary or 2ndary, but usually not more than 3 aoes in total excluding set mules Your epic mitigation power, either +def or +res. Leadership - all 5 powers are worthwhile in their own way. It's a strong pick on blasters despite weak scalar values, since it mules lotgs and allows you to convert blasters' excess recovery and power choices into dps. Vengeance offers wipe prevention which is something blasters usually don't get. Haste - sets whose nuke is crashless (base rech <145s) can consider skipping it. Most of the best attack chains still require haste. CJ/hover/fighting - mitigation and lotg mules. Not recommended: Aoe mezzes from the 2ndary - shit mag and duration. medicine pool - kill or be killed, you have no time for the tricorder. You will see effective blaster builds that deviate from this framework, depending on build goals and threat environment (4* optimized builds will not have fighting for example), but in general this build plan will go anywhere and do anything.

I genuinely tried to answer this, but a comprehensive answer would be so broad in scope and touch upon so many variables of power types, threat environments, the prevailing meta, what the IO and incarnate systems are capable of, etc etc, that I could write an entire doctorate thesis on build design theory, and I'm far too lazy for that. However, there is one facet that is pretty objective and easy to address, and that is attacks. For single-target attacks, most toons 1) want enough attacks to spend all animation time, and 2) want those attacks to be the highest damage per animation time ones that they have access to. If you are sitting around waiting for attacks to recharge, then you have unspent animation time and you need either more attacks or more rech. Conversely, if you have so many attacks that more than one (the currently animating power) is sitting around fully recharged and unused, then you have too many attacks and may consider taking fewer attacks - usually dropping the low dpa ones - or less rech. For aoe attacks, guidelines are more fuzzy, but a general rule of thumb is 1 low-rech spammable aoe and 1+ longer-recharging attacks. Most builds will not have enough aoe attacks to seamlessly loop them all, partly because of longer base recharges, partly because minions and Lts die quickly so it is unnecessary. As a guideline, most endgame, IO toons will have between 5-7 attack powers (total of both ST and aoe attacks). Taking too many attacks is a common beginner pitfall because attacks are slot-intensive. Attacks typically have at least 4 usefully enhanceable stats (dmg/acc/rech/endrdx) plus intense competition for damage procs which means core attacks are often 6-slotted. By comparison other categories of powers do not offer as many usefully enhanceable stats, e.g. mitigation toggles and autopowers usually cannot make worthwhile use of rech enhancement. Having too many attacks means not enough slots to properly enhance them all.

In that case, you have to be willing to change your power choices, take an SL def shield, or make other sacrifices. Slot-efficient S/L def comes primarily from ST melee attacks and melee AT's ATIOs, with small amounts present in a select number of other sets. You have too few of the power types required (see how the melee def in my example is higher than S/L -- it's literally easier to put melee def on this build than it is to get S/L). This should alert you to the potential of going for a different mitigation strategy instead such as R/aoe or even tri-vector def.

Take barrier destiny for the last 5%. Corruptor (Fire Blast - Pain Domination).mbd

Most set bonuses are minuscule, but some are not, especially rech, def, res, and acc. 2 purple sets is +20% rech and +30% acc - that's Quickness from SR or Lightning Reflexes from elec armor, plus a free yellow SO in every attack. Set bonuses also do not count against ED, allowing for eg. powers that recharge far quicker than any SO build can get them to. One thing that hasn't been mentioned so far is damage procs: damage procs allow a power's damage to be effectively boosted beyond the ED cap. Procs are a big part of why modern toons do much more dps than they did on live and why the modern meta is so heavily skewed towards dps above all else. Typed is usually more slot-efficient; see examples such as 3x eradication (3.125), 3x aegis (3.125) and 4x kincombat (3.75). Positional bonuses of this size are usually 5-6 slots, 4x unbreakable guard being the big exception. The real advantage of positional is that it is not vulnerable to psi - most psi attacks still have a vector - and more often comes bundled with rech (see oblits, basilisks, manticore, cloud senses, coercive, expedient, etc). The great typed defense overhaul a while back put an end to that (praise God!). Those energy/smashing energy blasts now check only energy def.

Tankers that can fairly easily get 90% res to all and 45% def to all except tox/psi, regardless of 2ndary, in approximately decreasing order of ease: Stone - with or without granite, and it caps its own HP. Shield - cycle melee core/owts/rune. WP - cycle melee core/sow/rune. Unlike shield it has crap DDR so against certain enemy groups (ahem eyeballs) you will lose all the def, but it compensates with absurd hps. SR - provided you are comfortable with using the low hp% scaling res mechanic. Sets that are a little short, can only do it with specific 2ndaries (usually staff or MA), only under certain circumstances (eg 2-3 stacks of ATIO1 proc), or only by going all-in on turtling, in approximately decreasing order of ease: Invuln - it is very close, though, likely close enough not to matter, and it self-caps HP which neither shield or WP do. Dark, rad, fire, elec, the resist sets - take MA and use storm kick. Lack of DDR means that against many actually dangerous enemies, the increase in survivability is questionable. Ice - no +res T9 on tankers (instead it phases you) and the non-cold res is too low across the board. Bio - the non-SL res is too low, and usually you want to run offensive adaptation. Max def/res is not the optimal way to build bio, in any case; you want to leverage the absorb mechanic for all it's worth. Define good. But to answer the implied question, most non-stone brutes will pay through the nose in build capacity to get 90% res and 45% def, and it is usually not optimal for them to try. Brutes are far worse at building for res than tankers and only slightly better at building for SL def, and start off with lower numbers across the board, which hampers their ability to cap both def and res simultaneously. Hami ignores def and res, and the core and mitos inflict -heal -regen. There is lots of support and buffs flying around in a hami raid, so anything your powersets or build can bring to the table is irrelevant. All you need is taunt, KB resist, and a raid leader that will let you do it (ask). If you want to tank the really tough AV's for long periods without support, you should lean to the sets with click heals/absorbs, like dark or rad, since they are much better at self-sustain. For the really tough content, you want to pay attention to debuff resistance, because what typically kills IO tankers is not raw damage but debuffs. You also want good damage output, which not only makes you valuable even when there are other tankers present or when meat shields are not required, but further increases survivability by killing off dangerous enemies, shortening challenging encounters, and reducing incoming dps. Finally, leverage other tools like knockdowns, absorb procs, debuffs and controls wherever possible instead of relying only on mitigation. Heavily layered, multifaceted defenses backed up by strong offensive power will help you be successful and valuable in any situation. Loading up on def/res helps protect against player error, but most of the game is designed not to require 90% res/45% def, and in the remainder ally buffs (especially +def buffs) are so omnipresent and potent they trivialize any differences between armor sets or even IO builds. As a modicum of logic would reveal, the kind of incoming dps that requires 90% res/45% def would make the content prohibitively difficult for teams without a tanker, and requiring specific AT's is not how coh is designed. Instead, the way the game challenges armored toons is typically through debuffs, special mechanics, and irresistible/autohit damage, so once you have a sufficient amount of mitigation, you want to branch out and cover the less obvious bases. Then you'll need to prioritize slotting for knowledge and situational awareness. Maxing out the former makes you immune to any enemy or hazard, while the latter will allow you to identify and appropriately react to any situation. You should also not neglect your experience (not xp); unfortunately experience can only be increased by dying when you don't want to, not by slotting, but the good news is this stat has the property of never decreasing, only increasing, and there is no hardcap on it. Taking the social skills power pool is extremely helpful, especially the powers 'summon allies', 'accept criticism', and 'improved communication'. Sadly, none of the above are available from any IO one can buy on the AH, so you're on your own!

As a former Mako's apostate, I have also been converted from arctic breath into the cult of dominate/psinado. I now believe this is the best all-purpose rad although soul's DN has great value for turtling up and in the really sophisticated threat environments. Your build is mildly glass cannony because you commit fully to procs. However, if you so desire, you can potentially make an extremely tanky but still high dps general-purpose rad/ss/psi with some tweaks. My build has several adjustments including the ATIO2 proc in footstomp, entomb proc in KOB and rad therapy slotted for heal as opposed to procs. While the dps is lower, with absorb procs going off all over the place and massive heals it can solo level 54x8 no insps no temps: Vanguard (harmonic mind actually comes in useful vs the SIGIL round) Rularuu (have to kill the minion eyeballs fast to avoid being held) Longbow Arachnos Malta PPD And just about everything in the game, really. Something to consider for the player who wants a tank that drives anywhere and kills anything.

Your playstyle has issues. There are many ways to get transference buffed at range on a kin - with experience you learn how to stand just within range of it, or jump in and out for a quick buff using a variety of methods. Or just build for def and res and tank everything, it's easily possible on a corr with the vast amount of slot-efficiency a kin has. I don't expect you to take this advice despite multiple people having informed you of this, since you have demonstrated that you are deeply defensive and insecure when confronted with anything even vaguely resembling criticism of your skill level. P.S. Power descriptions in coh have always been wildly inconsistent, incomplete and inaccurate (the newer ones, written by homecoming team, are generally but not always better). The only description that matters is the one in the game engine.

You can drain all end very quickly (1-2 powers), this has never been a problem with properly built sappers (think powerboost + thunderous blast). While I don't think sapping can fully replace a mit layer like def or res, it does reduce incoming dps by a significant amount and you can do funny things with it like heavily delaying cyclopes from using their unstoppable. However sapping was indeed nerfed against hard targets a few patches ago by homecoming, one of the few nerfs in the history of coh I consider a bad idea. EB/AV's/GM's min recovery is now 25%/25%/50% respectively. AV's GM's can still use attacks costing less than 10/15 end respectively. This and the fact that they introduced the Shocked! mechanic for elec blast reflects how dps, over all else, has become the primary concern of both Homecoming developers and players.

You are going to have end issues if you want to actually run tactics and all these procbombed attacks. Chronoshift's recov bonus only lasts 30s (out of the power's 90s duration) and your net eps is only 1.53 without it. That means an endredux alpha eg vigor, or ageless destiny. Power boost increases farsight's def bonus by about +12.3 def to all on fenders, so with a powerboosted farsight on you have 51.7 def to all, 56.7 ranged. This is a lot, and you can give some serious thought to skipping fighting if you like and taking some other def power in its place, like stealth or CJ; but fighting will let you cap SL res so it's not exactly bad either. Temp selection is quite strong for the 31.25% +dmg buff (same strength as Fort) on top of its rech buff if you can keep it up diligently, but time crawl isn't bad either and is beneficial while soloing. I chalk this one up to playstyle differences. Tactics can potentially still be useful even with farsight if you want to exploit putting a gaussian's BU proc in it (it rolls to proc for every friendly buffed by tactics), though you might find this unsporting to the enemies. I would reconsider if you need to proc distortion field when you already have 3 procbombed attacks, 2 of which are relatively spammable. Overall, sound suggestions have already been made and if the "Bopper build" OP based this off is the same one I am thinking of (time/dp) it is actually a very well built one. If you can decide how to fix the end issues this should be pretty good. Don't take my word for it though: you should give it a spin on the test server - you can level up and gear for free there.

The build does have +1 from the alpha ("testing 50+1 SR with aggro cap"). They also do have 50% def to all positions in combat with stealth on (maybe ranged slightly lower at ~49), assuming the values in the tables are without stealth and the ones in the screenshot are with unsuppressed, out of combat stealth. Council were buffed and now do more -def, but nothing an SR can't tank, and while I have not looked at their new powers in detail, as far as I am concerned they are still pushovers, albeit very bulletspongey ones with all the ressurecting wolves. Recently I took an SR scrapper with 50% def to all through some +4x8 council papers and it was fine. I think the issue with the OP build is just a lack of sustain. Mitigation is fine and all, but melee toons soloing on high difficulties need good dps to kill the mobs and at least a little sustain to stay in the fight, or they will die the death of a thousand cuts. Case in point, my scrapper has medicine pool since it's an AV soloing build, and that's probably why it has no issue. Once you get rebirth (visible in your screenshot, though you mention you have only the alpha slotted), maybe some PT heal procs, and a dps interface, things should be a lot comfier. Or just reroll SR tank, the whole 90% resist thing works a lot better when backed up by tanker ATIO's, tanker base HP and tanker defenses.

Re: the thread title, I do not see the "true role" of anything as being very relevant. Things can be designed with developer-intended strengths and weaknesses, however, finding ways to subvert these and develop toons in unexpected directions is part of the fun of games like coh. Ultimately, what matters are the results as opposed to anyone's preconceptions of what something should play like. P.S. I'm very pleased to see more people rightfully calling out forumites on inflated numbers in mids and unrealistic build claims. Keep up the good job!