Riverdusk

Combat jumping stacks just fine with Shinobi-Iri on the scrapper I ran this combo on. Unless you mean you are trying to throw ninja run in there too, combat jump and ninja run won't work together. But with this combo I treat ninja run as my "travel power" and run that and Shinobi-Iri when I'm traveling and then combat jump and Shinobi-Iri when I'm fighting. I'd be surprised if hover worked any different. Honestly I'd do that over taking fly, but that's a preference thing. As to the stealth question, Shinobi-Iri only gives 35ft of stealth in pve, same as a steatlh IO, so I'd think you'd still need to throw a stealth IO in sprint, along with Shinobi-Iri, to have full "invisibility".

1hr = 2 days actually. It is a new midnight (normally) at :00 and :30 of every real life hour. https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Time

Can answer one real quick. Recharge slotting in pets only affects the recharge of the summon power. Pets/pet attacks are not affected by +recharge (that also goes to +recharge buffs like speed boost, they'll get the +speed but not the +recharge). They are also immune to -recharge debuffs as a silver lining, but again are still affected by slows to movement (as you'll see when they get hit by something like caltrops). Endurance reduction does affect both the summon power and the pets. I definitely notice the difference in some of my pets running out of endurance with and without endurance slotting. It greatly depends on the pet though, some tend to use a lot of end and others not so much. For example, from my memory for necro pets it isn't too much an issue, whereas all 5 of my thugs seem to be heavy end users, and for bots it was mostly an issue with the two protector bots. I'm not as familiar with demons, but it is pretty easy to watch and figure out for yourself which need help in that area.

I definitely suggest some of those procs, especially if you aren't a fan of knockback. Best early level mitigation I had was spamming gale, which was probably my most used power early on (and I still use it a lot now, even more than hurricane). That proc in gale means you can freely spam it even in the open and in groups. Hurricane does take that proc as well, but it only mitigates the knockback, the repel is still there, so you still push them back as well as knocking them down. I'm still undecided on even putting one there as often I'll only use hurricane now as more of an "emergency" button, not something I use all the time. Using it with the knockback can be useful as it more often ragdolls things which can sometimes lead to them being taken out of the fight for a long time. That one is a preference thing. That proc in tornado is a must imho. In lightning storm it is nice, but not quite as mandatory since its knockback isn't as high of a mag, so if you are fighting +3's say, it'll probably just do knockdown even without the proc. I haven't calculated the exact numbers though. I went ahead and put one in so I can team without worrying about it.

With Ninja maybe....? Never tried ninja/storm myself. Not sure why you'd think thugs die easily with /storm. Lvl 45 now on that one and not quite there yet, but my thugs/storm pets will soon enough have soft capped defenses (46% to melee and ranged, 61% to aoe by my calculations) and that is without any incarnate extras (I did have to sacrifice some proc slotting in enforcers so I could slot defense there, pre-incarnate at least). I couldn't actually find a way to even get close to soft capping on a necro/storm when I tried to build one. Necro do get extra tohit debufing, but that isn't always as reliable/easy as just soft capping them. That debuffing doesn't always hit the right targets and then against AV's is severely reduced in effectiveness. I feel like necro is actually a step down in defense and with them would rather go with something safer like necro/dark or necro/time. I actually want to try a necro/dark sometime. I'm still not the best MM player so sometimes things get spread out and pets do die (especially that darn arsonist), but that's kind of a danger for almost any MM. Yes even more so for storm as it has so many powers that cause enemies to run (which is why I definitely am not a fan of illusion/storm which has zero access to immobilizes). But as long as I can keep things fairly tightly packed my thugs already feel almost indestructible.

I'd probably go mercs/storm for your mercs. Gives them probably the most damage help you can give them and some hefty -res help.

Haven't seen anyone mention this one, there is also a Supergroup base buff you can get for +perc. Usually SG buffs last for 1.5 hours each in exchange for a few pieces of cheap salvage. Also super easy to pop into a base now with the slash command to get it done. I believe the SG buff is the same +20% perc that the rectified recticle IO gives. That may not always be enough on its own? If not combine the two that gives +40% which should be enough I'd think.

One tip on using shadow maul, take a little step back before activating it. With a tiny bit of range it'll more easily hit more than 1 target as the cone gets slightly wider at the edge of its range(like most melee it has a 7ft range). It takes some practice, but it gets pretty easy to regularly hit at least 2 and if you can hit 2 with it, it is worth using from a dps/dpa standpoint.

Ice armor does have a minimal fx option, unless you mean even at minimal it is still too much (it does still have some fx to it even at minimal, but doesn't turn you into a total ice cube anyway).

Yep, once you get the incarnate boosts, I'd think most MM's should be able to do it, although speed of doing so might vary depending on powers/build of course.

I'd say softcap defense is nice, but not vital, unless you plan to tankermind. Since I don't see provoke in your build I'm assuming you aren't going for that. Keep in mind that in bodyguard mode you have really good resistances when needed, which helps a lot.

Yep, it can even buff otherwise unbuffable pets like phantom army and voltaic sentinel.

Another point against it - lackluster proc/set opportunities. Endurance mod sets are weak (for offensive purposes). Although this hurts corrupters/defenders more. Funny the set is actually pretty good overall for sentinels though. Maybe they could give all ATs the damage boost they gave to sentinel's tesla cage.

Yep, I read this change in the patch notes and my reaction was 😕. Not sure what they were thinking with this one.

Some of the epics have immobilizes, and I'm very much looking forward to web envelope for that reason. Only helps down to level 30 (when exemp) at best, but still available for a big chunk of the game at least. Also, I'd swear I've noticed things tend to run more than usual when the thug arsonist sets them on fire. Unless that is my imagination, thugs have a particular issue with runners.

Might add ice armor to that as well (not that many seem to play it anymore). It is another defense set and Scrappers get Icy Bastion which seems more useful than hibernate?

Not to be nit picky, but I believe electric shackles is single target. You are probably thinking of brutes which get electric fences (which I wish scrappers got instead). I do think water spout is underrated though which you didn't list, and it helps clean up those extra minions too and is an easy cast and forget (and also happens to be good against hard single targets).

Not to mention siphon life giving you a huge heal every few seconds on top of WP's already crazy regen. Should be one of the most unkillable combo around.

Interesting bit of trivia, I always wondered how some of these differences came about.

Simple answer, resistance cap for a blaster is 75%, so you are fine. Defense softcap is 45%. As others explain above resistance and defense are two different things.

Very cool. Hope to see Experimentation, Gadgetry, and Utility Belt soon as well! Agree it'd be nice to raise the cap on number of different pools we can pick beyond 4 too, if possible.

Yep, found an old archived thread discussing the same thing. Best people could come up with was a macro to dismiss the zombies and knights and release the lich so only the lich body remains. I guess just to make it easier to target and raise from the lich. Still need to resummon everything though. https://web.archive.org/web/20120906021955/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=292484

/bio is probably actually the best at AV (and potentially even GM) killing. There is a reason TW/Bio is the new AV/GM killing FoTM. DM when buffed with soul drain shouldn't be too far different though. Bio with its damage buff, -res debuff, and -regen debuffs make a good bit of difference. They aren't huge, but they add up when you combine them with envenomed daggers and incarnate debuffs. Bio is much harder to max defense on though and more clicky and not everyone is a fan of the visuals (even the minimal ones). Also soul drain doesn't buff bio damage aura since it is toxic damage.

A victim of their own success in a way though. They've already made some good changes and are working a pretty big overhaul to tankers. So they've shown they are capable and willing to make some pretty significant changes, and so far imho have done a pretty good job of it.

I'm the opposite, I like pistols in theory, but wish the animations weren't so over the top. Less twirling and gun flipping would also most likely lead to those animations being shorter and improving that ST dps. Piercing Rounds was the really obnoxious one to me, so much so that the plan was to skip it on my DP defender.