BZRKR

Whaaat?! They're finally porting Regeneration to Tanks?!?!

Part of the story of Market Crash is that the Sky Raiders give the Freakshow jetpacks: "Before Combat: Oh, yes, my Freaks! Sweet JETPACKS! Combat Start: You cannot stop us, Character! My Freaks will FLY!" This means in addition to Juicers flying, there are smashers and swipers in the air for example: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Freakshow#Wing_Smasher

This is probably close to correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praefectus_castrorum

All-new low level content with interesting and well-defined boss fight mechanics could be fun. Adding boss fight mechanics to existing content shouldn't be done. Guild Wars 2 exists, and has plenty of mechanics where it doesn't matter what your character is, just stand/ don't stand right there! Dark Souls (et al) exists and you can beat your head against some monster until you memorize its patterns. Balatro is a roguelike deck building game based on poker that has nothing to do with super villains, superheroes or the cities they live in. Turning Homecoming CoH into some other game is a poor choice when you have a world of choices that might make you happy.

Maybe Black Scorpion? https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Black_Scorpion#Investigate_Nemesis_Army_build-up_in_the_Shadow_Shard

Some thoughts: While in Domination (which will be all the time per your build goal) you'll have some KB protection. How valuable will extra KB protection be? I can see it al lower levels for sure. Sniper Rifle can take Sting of the Manticore for a 7.5% +rech, allowing you to move Apocalypse to Lift, replacing a 6.25% with a 10%. The Ice Mastery pool has a place for both 6x Reactive Defenses (Frozen Armor) and a place for 6x Preventive Medicine (Hoarfrost). You can harvest slots by dropping Grav Distortion field to 4 slots of Basilisk's Gaze (as you mention in #2) and by shaving 2 slots off Targeting Drone (Maybe slotting it with 2x Adjusted Targeting and 1x Rectified Reticle +Perception?) which will replace the 5% +rech in Targeting Drone with a +8.75 in Hoarfrost. Of course you would have to take Sleet, but as a 1-slot power to drop on mezzed and Wormhole'd groups, that's not all bad.

Which explains why they keep adding new and larger circles... Also, yellow card on calling what Houson has a "grid". It's more like crosshairs 🙂

Jet stream doesn't repel when the target is in the storm cell, so you can keep it for AoE damage, just be aware of how it works. Sometimes the repel is nice: into a wall, into a corner, etc. Also, KB to KD doesn't affect repel, which is a separate effect.

I have done Fire/ Marine/ Fire and Arsenal/ Marine/ Mace, and while both characters are fun, I like the Arsenal/ Marine better. Fire/ Marine/ Fire: With the PBAoE powers and Whitecap, this character likes to throw Flashfire into a Tide Pool'd spawn and then Whitecap in, Cinder, and mop up. Fire Imps Love Marine. Arsenal/ Marine/ Mace: This character sneaks up on a spawn with Cloaking Device, Tide Pools, and then opens up with Smoke Canister+Sleep Grenade+Tear Gas to completely bamboozle the spawn, and then his Tri-Cannon and Toxic Tarantula (both of which love Marine) get to work.

Man, if that sentence doesn't define "badgeworthy" then I need another cup of coffee.

Well yeah, Indomitable is the "get stuff done" server.

Just be aware that when you go up elevators or zone, it'll drop off. Otherwise it's cruise control for cool.

While no one can predict what someone else would do, it sounds like you have a firm concept that you're building for, so go for it!. I will say though, the shields on Cold accept both Resistance and Defense IOs, and therefore are great places to slot the unique IOs including the Luck of the Gambler +7.5% recharge one.

A possible runner up: Grav/ Dark for Dimension Shift and Black Hole? And don't forget Leviathan Mastery for Waterspout and Hibernate to give you time to type in chat 🙂

Radiation Armor/ Battle Axe would be my suggestion. Excellent Armor and the Shovel weapon customization you desire.