Stormwalker

I can't say I've ever had a character who couldn't be defeated. My Claws/SR scrapper is very survivable, but I once through a combination of recklessness (attacking a double spawn on x8) and poor situational awareness (not realizing there were patrols in the mission which consisted of two Master Illusionists) ended up fighting 7 Carnie bosses (3x Dark Ring Mistress, 4x Master Illusionist) at once. I did not survive that, though it was quite a wild ride trying. I only lasted as long as I did because of Shockwave's huge cone keeping large portions of the spawn on the ground as much as possible. Even when I was testing my Inv/SS Tanker build on Brainstorm, she wasn't completely invincible. She was, by far, the most durable character I've ever built, but just running Carnie missions at +4/x8 was enough to produce situations that absolutely could kill her if I was not on my game. So... actually being unkillable is not something I've ever attained. But I do agree with your ultimate point - if it's not fun, why do it? And this is one reason why I... don't really care what is actually "the meta". What I care about is what allows me to do the things I have fun doing. While most of my characters are optimized to the extent that their concepts allow (which in some cases is not actually all that much, and in some cases is a lot), they're optimized to my playstyle more than to a single standard of "this is what is best". And if you're not running the very most difficult content in the game, that's what I recommend everyone do. Build your character in the way that suits the way you play the game. What's fun for me is taking the concept character I dreamed up and seeing how far I can make that character go while remaining true to their concept. So that's what I do.

This comment raises a really valid point which reminds me of the build you gave me for my energy/energy/force blaster a couple of years ago. I had put together a ranged soft-cap build on my own, but it was not a great build (which I knew, but I didn't really know back then how to make it better). You gave me a much better build (which I am still using, with a few modifications), which achieved my build goals (including the ones I hadn't achieved in my build) with fewer compromises while also adding in some important things (like slow resistance and immobilize protection) which I didn't fully grasp the importance of (I confess, with my main up to that point having been a Claws/SR scrapper, I was very spoiled by SR's innate 40% slow resist and didn't realize just how important slow resist actually is). Also, your build included some offensive considerations I simply hadn't thought of due to my inexperience with blasters. I spent a lot of time studying that build and how you accomplished so many different things with it, and from that I realized my experience (mostly with scrappers) had given me an overly narrow view of how to build for survivability goals. I was, essentially, building for defense first and then trying to fit in everything else. What I learned from your build was how to build for defense alongside my other build goals - resulting in much more unified builds with many fewer wasted set bonuses and a more well-rounded character overall. Building for defense or resistance in and of itself isn't a problem (unless you're running hard modes, in which case it might be, but as you noted, the hard mode meta is its own thing), but building for defense or resistance to the exclusion of other important attributes is a problem. In every case, there is a balance to be struck. You need to know the content you're planning to run, and the team (or lack of team) you're planning to run it with, and you need to understand your own playstyle. From this you determine your build goals. Then, to achieve those goals effectively, you need to understand your AT and the powersets you are running, and the synergies you can leverage to that end.

I'll agree with much of what you said in the team evironment. Solo, I strongly prefer NOT to be dependent on having specific types of inspirations in my tray. It's bad enough having to convert insps to Break Frees on a blaster. I prefer to be able to use whatever insps I happen to have in my tray at any given time, not to be constantly converting to purples to maintain my desired level of defense. That said, I'll admit that something like this is more a question of suiting one's preferred playstyle than of what is meta. Soft-capping defenses (which defenses I soft-cap depending on AT and powersets) enables me to play the game the way I want to play it. Also, in solo play, I'm going to disagree somewhat about soft-cap defenses on characters without DDR. It *does* still make a difference in many situations. My energy/energy/force blaster gets mezzed VASTLY less often in solo play thanshe did before I soft-capped her ranged defense. This alone made soft-capping her ranged defense worthwhile, to say nothing of the reduction in damage taken. While I am not going to pretend her damage output is the same as it would be on a team-focused hyper-offensive build (obviously, it isn't), it is still pretty respectable, and she is much, much more survivable than she was before. I am able to play her on higher difficulty settings than I was before, and I die much less than I did before. In solo play, my experience has been that building for defense softcaps (when they are reasonably attainable, that is) is still very beneficial. If anything, my long term plans (once I am wealthy enough in game, which I am not at present) is to have a solo build and a team build for each character, enabling me to get the best of both worlds. Of course, that is assuming that the combination of PPM procs and global recharge doesn't get nerfed at some point (which is something that has always been a consideration, though the proliferation of hard mode conent makes it seem less likely to me than I once thought), which would push the meta back toward defenses anyway.

Dagnabbit, that was supposed to be in one of the two powers with Shield Wall in it. Somehow I accidentally left it out! Thank you for catching that! @Eyjafjallajokull you will definitely want to fix that. Replace the Shield: Wall: Defense/Recharge in Weave with the Shield Wall unique. I also missed that the Panacea proc was left out when switching from Energy Mastery to Soul Mastery since you lost Pnysical Perfection (where it had been slotted). I'd advise trying to find a way to fit that proc back in somewhere. Though, the build is pretty tight, I don't see a lot of options to drop a slot. One possibility, if you're OK with only 80% slow resist, is to drop the two-piece Superior Blistering Cold from Kick and move the slot to Health and put the Panacea proc there. I would strongly suggest copying your character to Brainstorm and experimenting with it both ways before spending the inf on the Superior Blistering Cold pieces. Also, with the extra 5% fire/cold resist you're getting out of the Shield Wall unique, you could consider dropping the one of the three Superior Avalanche pieces from Head Splitter (giving up a 6% fire/cold resist set bonus) and adding the Armageddon: Chance for Fire Damage proc for some more damage. That's purely a matter of preference. This is how it would look with those changes: Soul Scrapper V.2 (Broad Sword - Willpower) Designed mostly by Stormwalker.mbd

@UltraAlt, I have to admit, I'm confused at your "confused" reaction, since I was agreeing with your statement that leveling up can be very much a part of a roleplayed character's story, by way of giving an example of how one of my characters experienced that journey of development and growth. Maybe I was just too wordy? But that's just the way I tend to be.

There are a lot of other people who have participated in this thread who will argue that count with you a lot more effectively than I can, because I generally do build my characters to be self-sufficient insofar as their concept allows them to be. But I do it that way because I solo 90+% of the time, so I have to do it that way. But the folks who are out there running 4* hard modes in dedicated teams do things differently, and it works for them, so I am sure not going to tell them that they are doing it wrong. And even I will let certain aspects of self-sufficiency slide when I know I will have certain buffs at all times. For example, I have a Dark/Dark scrapper who I play in basically a permanent duo with a friend's Kin/Psi defender. That character's build is significantly endurance-negative. I could fix that, but I have no need to fix it, because that character will always have Recovery buffs, so slotting for more recovery or endurance discount on him would be a waste of slots he can put to better use elsewhere. Simply put, there is no single "this is always the right way" to do it. Everything depends on how you play the game, and who you play the game with.

Yep. As I was discussing in another thread: My energy/energy/Force blaster Skylancer got all of her powers at once - which is to say, she gained the physical capacity to manifest every superpower she would ever be able to manifest in one moment. What she didn't get at the start was the skills to actually use all of those powers. Which is to say, she could absorb, store, and release tremendous amounts of power from that first instant. But the skill to actually practically use those powers? That didn't come all at once. She had to learn how to focus and direct, and modulate those energies. At first, the only thing she could do was make a forcefield around herself - and she did that the first time by accident out of sheer survival impulse because the lab equipment that gave her those powers was exploding around her. And even that, she only had "on - full power" and "off" at first, which made it not very useful (in fact, she would master a number of other uses of her powers before she really got a handle on that one). Energy blasts? She figured that out pretty quickly - it was a matter of realizing she could channel the energy flows through her nervous system and release them at a specific point. Focusing them and aiming them enough to be effective with them... that took longer. Hence, her early blasts were weak and not very well-focused. She didn't have great control at first and she was afraid of hitting someone too hard and hurting them too much, so she held back a whole lot. As she got better, she started using stronger blasts because she was more confident in her ability to precisely modulate the amount of force she delivered in each blast (and had a better sense of what the people she was fighting could take). (Primary and Secondary powers, developing over the course of her levels) Flight? That took a lot of practice. Much like riding a motorcycle, she found it easier to go fast than slow. Modulating her energy release precisely enough for fine control was much more difficult than just generating great gobs of thrust. She learned to fly before she learned to Hover, but it was a while before she could do either one safely. After about nine moths of practice, it had become pretty much second-nature, but when she first got her hero license she wouldn't use flight in public places because she was afraid she'd go out of control and crash into someone. She had the power, but she didn't have the skill. (The Flight pool, which she picked up in the teens) As she got better at controlling her powers, she wanted to develop as a more well-rounded hero. To this end, she started taking some basic martial arts from an instructor in her supergroup. This benefited her in several ways - the increased awareness of her own body helped her to regulate her own energy flows more effectively, improving her control over her powers even further. The basic understanding of how to fight made her better at avoiding hits, and better at taking them even when she couldn't deploy her forcefield for it. (the Fighting Pool, which she picked up in the late 20's) It took a long time for her to manifest more than a simple bubble forcefield. Eventually, however, she mastered these skills as well, which gave her a number of new tricks. She can generate a bubble forcefield (Personal Force Field, at 35), a skinfield (Temporary Invulnerability, at 38), and eventually through these efforts she learned to open up her energy tap much wider and unleash the full might of her powers in a brief but exhausting blaze of glory (Force of Nature, at 44). And finally, as she became an experienced hero, and became the trusted right hand of her supergroup leader, she developed her own leadership skills, becoming the heart of her supergroup. This thrust her into a battlefield leadership role as well, and she put in the study and practice to learn make the most not only of her own powers, but those of her teammates as well (the Leadership pool, which she picked up in her 40's) So... from day 1, before she was ever level 1, she had all the power - the ability to absorb energy from her environment, store it, and project it as light and kinetic energy. But learning to use that power to do all the things she does as a level 50 hero? That took her more than a year of practice and day-in, day-out hero work on the streets of Paragon City. Even if someone has instinctive use of all of their powers (which Skylancer didn't), even they lack experience at first. Every hero goes through a learning process, a becoming process, that makes them the hero they will ultimately become. In this way, heroes are just like us. They grow every day of their lives. Leveling up reflects this growth. At least, that's how I see it. Others can play it their way. We all have our own ideas of what is "fun", after all. I'm just happy to have a game that makes playing the way I prefer possible.

Comments: Two slots in Hasten (rather than Build Up) is definitely the right choice if you can only put two slots in one of them. Hasten makes everything recharge faster (including Build Up) while it's up, so you want to have as much uptime on it as you can. This goes double when you also have Shadow Meld, which has a very long recharge time. More Hasten uptime = more Shadow Meld uptime. In this build, Shadow Meld will mostly give you four things: You can drop Parry from your attack chain while Shadow Meld is running (as you will be soft-capped to almost everything without Parry). It will push your Energy/Negative defense way above the soft-cap, so it gives you margin for defense debuffs there. It will push your Fire/Cold defense above (well above) the soft-cap, so it'll be good for dealing with enemies with those damage types. It will push your Psionic defense above the soft-cap (good for Carnies and Seers) and your Toxic defense almost to the soft-cap. Note that Shadow Meld's uptime is very short, and its recharge is very long, but it provides an immense amount of protection while it lasts, so it can be good for protecting you while you absorb the alpha from a big spawn, or for dealing with a major threat (Carnie bosses come to mind here). Given that Moonbeam will probably account for a more significant chunk of your damage than Laser Beam Eyes would have (it's just a better power outright), you might consider dropping the 6th slot and adding the Apocalypse: Chance for Damage (Negative) proc. This would cost you 5% Fire/Cold defense, which is a pretty significant loss, but it would also boost the damage you get out of Moonbeam significantly. It's your call on the trade-off there, whether you want the extra defense or the extra DPS. I would personally stick with the defense, but I solo a whole lot. I've looked over this a dozen times trying to find a way to get closer to the S/L hard-cap, but I only see one way to do it and I don't think it's a good trade (slotting 5-pc. LotG instead of 1-pc. LotG and 4-pc. Shield Wall). Still, it's something to consider. The reasons I don't think it's a good trade are: LotG's HP bonus is smaller than Shield Wall's, LotG's S/L resist bonus is smaller than Shield Wall's E/N resist bonus (that said, some would argue the S/L resist is more important than the E/N resist). With Tactics, you don't really need the extra Accuracy that LotG gives. Overall, I think this looks pretty good. Hopefully some other people will weigh in on this, as well, in case I missed something.

For my part, City of Heroes IS that game. I don't PL characters to 50, because PL'ing is boring and a grind. So I don't do that. I play my way to 50 the old-fashioned way. I do my story arcs. I do newspaper and radio missions and tip missions. I seek out different story arcs that I haven't done before (or haven't done recently, since I've done the vast majority of them at some point along the way). I have 50-some-odd characters, and only five of them are level 50, because I'm in no rush to get them there, because I'm having fun with the journey. The other day a new 50 was asking in chat "What do you do when you get to level 50?" There were lots of different responses, with lots of different perspectives, but my immediate reaction was, "The same thing I did before I got to level 50, only with some additional options." Because I pretty much play the same way on my 50's that I do while I'm leveling, with the exception of doing less story arcs (because I run out of them) and more radios/tip missions. The only thing that really changes when one of my characters hits 50 is that the vision of the character is fully realized and I get to enjoy that. But the process of getting there is also pretty darn fun to me.

To quote myself: "As such, a defender may not be practically able to soft-cap ranged defense". That's not a recommendation. It's simply a statement that, depending on a defender's build, soft-capped defense may not be feasible. Which is to say, I'm making an argument against applying a generic recommendation (i.e. "you should have soft-capped ranged defense" to Defenders - my specific point there is that Defenders are complex enough that one generic recommendation can't possibly apply to all of them!

Ok, now I have looked at your build. This is how I would build your character (using the same powers you did, but in a different order, and with very different slotting). This build has soft-capped energy/negative defense, soft-capped lethal defense (with one application of Parry), soft-capped Melee defense (with two applications of Parry), 40.8% Fire/Cold defense, and 69% Smash/Lethal resist I'd have preferred to hard-cap the S/L at 75%, but I would have had to change up your powers a bit to accomplish that along with the other things. It also has 95% slow resistance, compared to the 15% in your build. Most importantly, all your attacks are actually slotted as attacks. If you're going to take Laser Beam Eyes, you need to slot it. With only the one acc it's useless. Similarly, if you are ever using Hack as an attack at all, it needs to be slotted appropriately. Note that using the Superior Winter's Bite set in Laser Beam Eyes gets you 5% E/N defense and 5% F/C defense, along with 15% slow resist and some other bonuses. Other observations: You need to have two heals in High Pain Tolerance. Willpower is partially a regeneration set, this means you need all the +MaxHealth you can get. Heals slotted in High Pain Tolerance enhance the +MaxHealth. Also, the Resistance in HPT is not that much and not worth heavily slotting. I'd drop Assault and take either Hasten or a travel power, if it were me, assuming the concept was one where I could justify either of those. Of course, I don't know what your concept is, or how important concept is to you, so I didn't change any of your power picks. Either Hasten (which would potentially allow you to run a better attack chain) or a travel power would offer you more benefit than Assault. Parry gives a pretty large amount of defense without any defense slotting. You don't need to slot it for defense. It's a part of your attack chain; slot it as an attack, otherwise it will be a massive anchor dragging down your DPS. In this case, I franken-slotted it with 1 LotG +rech, two Superior Blistering Cold for slow resist, and two Touch of Death for E/N resist and a damage proc. You have options here, though. Notice that I split the Superior Avalanche set between Whirling Sword and Head Splitter. This has two benefits: You get the slow resistance bonus (the biggest reason to slot that set to begin with) twice. You can put 3-pc. Eradication in the other three slots and get Energy/Negative defense and a damage proc. The To-HIt Debuff in Rise to the Challenge is mostly a bonus on top of the regeneration it gives you. 6-slotting it with Numina's gets you some nice set bonuses, including very important E/N defense (as previously noted, this is how you protect against endurance drain). Willpower has enough Psi Defense and Resist for Scrapping purposes as it is. If you were a Tanker, you might think about slotting some (but not much, since you'd already have a lot), but you're not, and you have other needs that are more important. You put more defense slotting in Combat Jumping (54.16% in a power which offers very little defense) than you did in Weave (41.29% in a power which offers quite a bit of defense). That's not a good use of your slots. I changed Combat Jumping to 1 LotG +rech and a Winter's Gift: Slow Resist, and more heavily slotted Weave. Three slots in Physical Perfection is overkill. Toss one of the heal procs in it and call it good. You have a ton of Recovery already just by being Willpower, and you have Conserve Power. Slotting heavily for Recovery is wasted. If you don't care as much about slow resistance as I do, you can take the two-piece Superior Blistering Cold out of Kick (which I assumed you are not actually using as an attack, and thus slotted it as a mule) and put the extra slot in Tough to pick up a bit more S/L resist (as Tough is slightly underslotted in my build). I really hate slows, so I went all-out on the Slow Resist. If it were me, I'd probably take Focused Accuracy instead of Tactics. Tactics gives slightly more To-Hit Buff, but Focused Accuracy gives a lot of To-Hit Debuff resistance, and since you're Willpower you already have Fear and Confuse resistance. If you team a lot more than you solo, though, Tactics might be better because it benefits your team. There are people here who could probably give you a better Willpower build than me. There are definitely people here who would give you a more offense-focused Willpower build than me. Take what I say here with a grain of salt. But I do think my build is pretty solid, and addresses most of the areas I saw for improvement in yours. Example Scrapper (Broad Sword - Willpower).mbd Hero Scrapper Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.7.5 rev. 21 ────────────────────────────── Primary powerset: Broad Sword Secondary powerset: Willpower Pool powerset (#1): Leaping Pool powerset (#2): Fighting Pool powerset (#3): Leadership Pool powerset (#4): Force of Will Epic powerset: Energy Mastery ────────────────────────────── Powers taken: Level 1: Hack A: Superior Blistering Cold: Recharge/Chance for Hold 3: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance 3: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative) 5: Hecatomb: Damage 5: Hecatomb: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy Level 1: High Pain Tolerance A: Invention: Healing 45: Invention: Healing 46: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3% Level 2: Slice A: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Accuracy/Damage 7: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Damage/Recharge 9: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge 9: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Damage/Endurance/Recharge 11: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge 11: Superior Scrapper's Strike: Recharge/Critical Hit Bonus Level 4: Fast Healing A: Invention: Healing 7: Preventive Medicine: Heal 13: Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb Level 6: Build Up A: Invention: Recharge Reduction 15: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 8: Mind Over Body A: Unbreakable Guard: +Max HP 15: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance 17: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance 17: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime 46: Unbreakable Guard: RechargeTime/Resistance Level 10: Indomitable Will A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 19: Reactive Defenses: Defense 19: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance 21: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 12: Parry A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 13: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage 21: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime 23: Touch of Death: Chance of Damage(Negative) 23: Touch of Death: Accuracy/Damage Level 14: Combat Jumping A: Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance (20%) 25: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 16: Rise to the Challenge A: Numina's Convalesence: Heal/Endurance 25: Numina's Convalesence: Endurance/Recharge 27: Numina's Convalesence: Heal/Recharge 27: Numina's Convalesence: Heal/Endurance/Recharge 29: Numina's Convalesence: Heal 29: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery Level 18: Whirling Sword A: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage 31: Superior Avalanche: Damage/Endurance 31: Superior Avalanche: Recharge/Chance for Knockdown 31: Eradication: Damage 33: Eradication: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge 33: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage Level 20: Quick Recovery A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End 33: Performance Shifter: EndMod Level 22: Disembowel A: Superior Critical Strikes: Accuracy/Damage 34: Superior Critical Strikes: Damage/RechargeTime 34: Superior Critical Strikes: Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime 34: Superior Critical Strikes: Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime 36: Superior Critical Strikes: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime 36: Superior Critical Strikes: RechargeTime/+50% Crit Proc Level 24: Heightened Senses A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 36: Shield Wall: Defense 37: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance 37: Shield Wall: Defense/Recharge 46: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance/Recharge Level 26: Head Splitter A: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance 37: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge 39: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge 39: Eradication: Damage 39: Eradication: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge 40: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage Level 28: Kick A: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge 40: Superior Blistering Cold: Damage/Endurance Level 30: Tough A: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All) 40: Reactive Armor: Resistance 42: Reactive Armor: Resistance/Endurance 42: Reactive Armor: Resistance/Endurance/Recharge Level 32: Weave A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 42: Shield Wall: Defense 43: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance 43: Shield Wall: Defense/Recharge 50: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance/Recharge Level 35: Maneuvers A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 43: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage 45: Reactive Defenses: Defense 45: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance Level 38: Tactics A: Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control: To Hit Buff/Endurance Level 41: Conserve Power A: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 44: Physical Perfection A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance Level 47: Laser Beam Eyes A: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage 48: Superior Winter's Bite: Damage/RechargeTime 48: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance 48: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge 50: Superior Winter's Bite: Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime 50: Superior Winter's Bite: Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge Level 49: Assault A: Invention: Endurance Reduction ────────────────────────────── Inherents: Level 1: Brawl A: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 1: Critical Hit Level 1: Sprint (Empty) Level 2: Rest A: Invention: Healing Level 1: Swift A: Invention: Run Speed Level 1: Health A: Miracle: +Recovery Level 1: Hurdle A: Invention: Jumping Level 1: Stamina A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End ────────────────────────────── Accolades: Task Force Commander The Atlas Medallion Freedom Phalanx Reserve Portal Jockey

Can't look at the build right now (typing this response on a break at work), but regarding the Energy Mastery powers, and your observation about endurance drain: In my experience, the best solution to endurance drain for Willpower is to soft-cap (45%) energy/negative defense. Most end drain attacks are of one of those two types, so if they can only hit you 5% of the time, endurance drain stops being a problem. That said, Conserve Power is always nice to have, even though Willpower doesn't really need it. And Physical Perfection adds a bit more onto Willpower's already impressive regen, which isn't bad. Laser Beam Eyes is what it is. It's a kinda OK ranged attack. Ranged attacks can be useful to have, both for pulling (sometimes when two large spawns overlap you may want to pull to avoid aggro'ing everything at once) and cutting down runners. I have never personally taken LBE because I've never been able to fit it in my concepts, so others may be able to lend more insight as to its value. I can tell you from my experience with other Scrapper sets that have ranged attacks built-in (Claws, KM, Staff) that a ranged attack can be a useful asset. Since I can't look at your build, I don't know if you took Focused Accuracy. It's something of a controversial power pick. I have always liked it, but before its endurance cost was reduced it was very hard to justify. Now, with the lower end cost, I take it frequently... not so much for the To-Hit Buff itself, but fot the 40% To-Hit Debuff resistance. Very useful when fighting Carnie Master Illusionists with their Dark Servants that like to debuff yout accuracy to oblivion.

Yeah, same with my Inv /SS Tanker. Super fast, super easy clear, because all the heroes lived, between me taking the aggro and Foot Stomp keeping most of the villains down.

One possibility that comes to mind: some religions (including a few denominations of Protestant Christianity, but not the most of them) disapprove of dancing. -- On other notes... I love this mission, and almost everything about it. There's only one thing I don't like, and that's this: If you're a scrapper with a Taunt aura and you're not level 50 (or a Brute and not hanging out near the resist caps), and you're trying to solo, you're likely to die a whole lot in this mission. My 50 EM/EA was able to solo it without dying by using Barrier. My 50 Claws/SR didn't need Barrier because she doesn't have a Taunt aura and could limit the amount of aggro she got. She had a couple of dicey moments due to ill-considered use of Shockwave, but that's my own fault My 46 KM/WP only died once because I used Focused Burst to pull while remaining out of taunt aura range of the pack of villains, which mostly worked. My scrappers who have taunt auras and don't have a ranged attack, though, have invariably died multiple times on this mission because you just get way too much aggro. Your AV helpers don't hold aggro very well even if you don't have a taunt aura; if you do, forget about it! 😛 My level 38 Inv/SS Tanker, on the other hand, had all the aggro and it was glorious because a bunch of the heroes survived to the end. Fastest solo run ever. Though, I should note, even without a taunt aura, sometimes the AV's just decide to aggro you for no apparent reason even when you haven't touched them and they're in the middle of fighting your ally AV's. My Psi/WP brute had Statesman aggro her for completely randomly from halfway across the map (way outside of taunt aura range, and I hadn't touched him). My Electric/Electric blaster had Recluse abandon his current target and come charging at her when she hadn't so much as scratched him. I forget which of my redsiders it was that had Synapse charge all the way around the pond to get to her the instant he spawned in. What's up with that?

Mostly, I find that Hasten below level 10 is useful for Regenners, to bring Reconstruction up faster.

I don't have a Broadsword/WP. I do have a Staff/WP and a Katana/WP, however, and I can attest that attacks that add defense mesh very nicely with Willpower. I originally created my Staff/WP as kind of a joke character, and she ended up being much, much, much tougher to kill than I had expected, and a whole lot of fun to play. I generally do not bother to soft-cap S/L defense on Willpower, because you've got much more S/L resist than you do other types. However, with my Staff/WP (my Katana/WP is only level 32, so she's not at this point yet), I do have soft-capped Melee and Lethal with only one application of Guarded Spin (Staff's Parry equivalent, except that GS is a cone). And Melee defense doesn't cover ALL Smashing attacks, but it certainly does cover a lot of them. I do typically soft-cap E/N defense on a Willpower, because I find that if I don't, endurance drains (Sappers, Mu, etc.) become a major issue. And also, it's not that difficult to do and you don't have nearly as much E/N resist as you do S/L. F/C defense is in the "nice to have" category, not really required, but if you're slotting any winter sets, you'll likely end up fairly close to the F/C soft-cap without really trying to. Regarding Energy Mastery: I am personally fond of the set, but if there is any Scrapper secondary that doesn't need Conserve Power and Physical Perfection, it's... well, neither Regen nor Willpower really need them, because both have Quick Recovery. But, of course, I am one of those people who chooses my Epic pool by Concept, and one of the reasons I take Energy Mastery a lot is its effects are fairly easy to justify compared to, y'know, randomly busting out with a dark or lightning snipe on a character who doesn't have any such powers. It's really up to you; if there's something in another Epic Pool that you want, Willpower can certainly do just fine without Energy Mastery. I frequently skip Strength of Will, partly because I really don't like crashes (even though SoW's is kind of a soft crash), but more than that because, honestly... I just never use it that much when I do take it.

Ironically, my two high-level SR scrappers (Kitten America, 50 Claws/SR and Aerofencer, 46 DB/SR) both DO have Hasten. But both of them fall under the "unless your attack chain requires cosmic levels of recharge" caveat, since Kitten uses Follow-Up -> Focus -> Slash and Aerofencer uses Blinding Feint -> Sweeping Strike -> Ablating Strike (or will, once she actually achieves the required level of recharge - she's not there yet). Several of my other SR scrappers who have less blistering attack chains don't, though.

I missed this in your original comment initially. Yeah, if you don't like Eye of the Storm, that will probably kill Staff for you, because Eye of the Storm is kind of crucial to the set. Of course, I have a similar problem with Kinetic Melee - I hate Concentrated Strike's animation and I refuse to take it. Somehow, my KM/WP manages to get by without it, but I'm sure it's holding me back (on an already weak set) since I lose out on the Concetrated Strike crit = refresh Power Siphon cooldown mechanic. (Incidentally, one of my favorite parts of playing Staff is hitting EotS after getting a Critical Strikes proc and "critting the neighborhood". And I actually really like EotS's animation. But it just goes to show you that what's great for one person isn't necessarily great for everyone).

Just a heads-up on that: there are mods available that change the sounds for many power sets. There is at least one that I know of for staff which states that it makes the sounds more "solid". Haven't gotten around to testing it myself yet, though.

There are some builds for which Hasten won't help you significantly at all. For example: if you're a Super Reflexes or Willpower melee AT and you already have enough recharge to run your desired attack chain gapless without Hasten (and remember that SR gets 20% +recharge for free, so unless your attack chain requires cosmic levels of recharge, hitting your recharge target isn't going to be that difficult), adding it doesn't give you anything. Especially if you're already at 100% slow resist, which is very attainable for SR in particular. Don't get me wrong, Hasten can be an incredibly useful power, and it is mandatory in some builds (Claws comes to mind, if you want the optimal attack chain), but for melee builds that don't have click defenses, you only need enough recharge to run your attack chain, and more than that is wasted. Not every AT/powerset has long-recharge clicks.

Yep. If you have enough recharge to make your build work, then chasing more is wasting slots. On the flip side, if you don't have enough recharge to make your build work, adding recharge is imperative. Though, if I don't have 100% slow resist (something I generally only achieve on a Super Reflexes character), I like to have a little extra.

Yep, Staff and Kinetic Melee are two perfect examples of a universal truth: Every Scrapper set is capable. Some are just more capable than others. I recently solo'd Task Force Commander on my Staff/WP. Having just checked her temp powers, she doesn't have Envenomed Daggers. When I buy something like that, I buy a LOT, so if she'd had them, she'd still have them. Which means I soloed Task Force Commander on a Staff/WP, including all the AV's that entails (Dr. V, Clockwork King, Clamor, Vandal, Countess Crey, Hopkins, and Jurassik), without needing Envenomed Daggers (or any other Temp powers, for that matter). Doing this does require having at least passable DPS output. And that was in a build which was not remotely optimized for exemplar play. So, Staff is perfectly capable of demolishing your enemies. Some other Scrapper sets (Ok, basically every other Scrapper set except KM) will do it faster, but on the flip side... very few of them will look nearly as cool doing it. The Staff animations are some of my favorite in the game.

Thoughts on this: I often (but not always) take Hasten. Even on characters were I can easily justify them having it, I don't always take it (see: Skylancer. It was in her original build, but I removed it, because she didn't need it (and also because there were other powers that were more important to her conceptually). First because she has more attack powers selected than she actually needs, and Second because she's an Energy blaster and there are plenty of places she can slot Force Feedback %rech (she has four of them slotted, most of them in her AoE's - only one of them is in her single-target attack chain, in Power Burst), and while those won't always proc, they often do, and if they don't, it just means her AoE's take a little longer to come back up. Her single target powers cycle pretty quickly already, and even when she had Hasten she couldn't just cycle her AoE's, she was always filling single-target attacks in between them. Speaking of Force Feedback %rech: how useful it is really depends on what you are and what you are doing. It's not useful at all for keeping a melee attack chain running. That demands reliable recharge. What it's really good for is bringing your long-recharge powers (see: Blaster nukes and Regen heals) back up sooner (it's going to proc at some point during that long recharge!). Being able to Nova more often on an Energy Blaster (which is otherwise kind of AoE-deficient) is really helpful. Re: auto powers. On Kitten America and Aerofencer (both very-high-recharge Super Reflexes scrappers, characters whose concepts revolve around superhuman quickness and agility), I run Hasten manually and put Practiced Brawler on auto. I won't forget to hit Hasten for more than a couple of seconds, because the fact that I suddenly have a gap in my attack chain will remind me. Having my attack chain suddenly feel clunky is not something I'm likely to miss, because it drives me nuts. On getting recharge from set bonuses: Yes, I usually get quite a bit of mine this way. This is another reason Skylancer doesn't need Hasten. That said, I frequently find a conflict between slotting purples for damage and recharge vs. slotting Winter sets for slow resistance. Especially with the recharge bonus in purple sets too often being at 5 pieces. I hate slows with a fiery passion, so I usually lean toward more slow resist. I've definitely never taken Hasten at level 4. I have taken Hasten below level 10 before (on rare occasions), but usually (when I take it at all) I take it somewhere in the mid-high teens or low 20's. Hasten is something that makes your existing powers better (by making them available more often). If you don't have enough existing powers, Hasten really isn't doing you that much good.

For me, it's generally a question of "How much recharge do I need for the attack chain that I want to use?" Which isn't always a question of optimization - sometimes it's also a question of "What attack chain feels right?". Even though BF -> AS -> SS -> AS is widely considered the best Dual Blades attack chain, I don't like to use it. It feels clunky to me. This is one of the reasons I'm experimenting with a build that has absurd recharge on my DB/SR (to try out BF -> SS -> AS), while my DB/WP is settling for BF -> Attack Vitals. Getting the attack chain I want may or may not require 5 LotG's, depending on how much recharge I need, and on what is in the rest of the build. Unless I'm playing a regenner, that is... and then I want as much recharge as i can reasonably achieve because of those all-important click powers. Though a regenner can't live on regen alone, so I can't skimp on mitigation in the name of recharge, either. There's a balance to be struck. Of course, adding defense powers makes for convenient places to drop in LotG, so it tends to work out. There's a reason that, of all my Regen concepts, the one who has turned out to be most capable is a ninja (well, it would be more correct to say that she is a hero who has been trained in ninja arts from childhood - her backstory is very complicated). Her concept lends itself easily to a high defense, high-recharge build. Hasten, Combat Jumping, Weave, Stealth, and Shadow Meld are all very easy powers to justify for her, especially when she also has Super Speed as part of her mutant powers, plus Katana provides Divine Avalanche. (Why is she a Scrapper and not a Stalker? When I first created her back on Live, Stalkers couldn't BE heroes). Similarly, my other fairly successful regenner is a Dark Melee/Regen Brute who is a Magic origin and whose combat body is a magical construct created by the artifact that is the source of her powers (her actual body is dimensionally elsewhere while the combat body is manifest), granting her a wide array of mitigation powers, including Rune of Protection. Most of my other Regen concepts have fallen by the wayside due to not being survivable enough to enjoy playing them (or in one case I just reimagined some of the details of her power mechanics and rerolled her as Willpower), because their concepts don't allow them to take the powers Regen needs to be really effective. Of course, I don't delete those characters - I never delete a character unless I'm rerolling them - I just don't play them as often. I have too many alts to play them all a lot, anyway. I play my favorites a lot, and play the others occasionally.

That's kind of my point. I just view enhancements as a game mechanic that loosely approximates the effects of a character's growth in power and skill but doesn't really describe the method behind that growth at all in most cases. Natural SO's are kinda the one exception to that rule.