Yomo Kimyata

The kindest way I can respond to any of these "buff the power sets I don't use until they are better than the ones I use!!!1!" is a gentle pat on the back as I murmur "there, there, it'll be ok." I think @Glacier Peak did a fine job of talking up the set as it is. I have it on very few of my alts, but those that have it use it very well and use it exactly as they described. Maybe, maybe there is a learning curve that some people may not be aware of? I know that's blasphemy but I can't understand otherwise.

Math-wise you get a lot more bang for the buck (and more drops) increasing your x rather than your +. Both help, but more enemies gets you stuff a lot more quickly. Try +1/x3 and see how quickly you go. then I'd try +1/x5, and feel things out from there. In my experience with melee alts, by lvl 40 I'm generally running +2/x5 and maybe x8 if I have enough Aoe. I'm at level 50 before I can blink. Also, the Experienced power (which is the same as Patrol XP) really helps a lot with rapid levelling. The devs give it out occasionally during events, but I get it mostly from opening hero or winter packs.

I'm seeing it as -150% for radiation v. -100% for bio, plus a faster recharge.

I'm tempted to make Pepsi Marlboro and see what happens.

Radiation Armor. Lots of debuffs, including the regen debuff from Radiation Therapy.

It can be. Some of my scrappers have at least two builds: one primarily for single hard targets and one for standard play (+4/x8 for me at endgame, which may not be for everyone). I'll usually pick a different power to put the Critical Strike proc in for each build. Also, look at Savage Melee set. Do you want to take Hemorrhage? Some people do and some people don't. It's great for proccing out, but if you don't want to use it it's useless. Also, are you paying any attention to the stacks of Blood Fury that you are building up? I'm not a pro on the set yet, but there are definitely times I want to avoid putting myself in lockout since I want the reduced endurance.

Most of my builds at this point run either Force of Will, Experimentation, or Sorcery. Unleash Potential is a catch-all power. I would like to 6-slot it if I can (Lotg +rech, Lotg D/R, Panacea H+5, Panacea H/R+5, 2x lvl 53 E/R DSO). On scrappers I've been moving towards Experimentation, since Moonbeam/Shadow Meld is such a good epic pool pair. Adrenal Booster or Corrosive Vial depends on how much AoE I've got. the pull power on Axe Cyclone now practically demands Corrosive Vial. I find Unrelenting ok, but not stellar. I'd rather have Invoke Panic!

I think it comes down to which AT do you prefer to play? For me, scrapper is more active. In order to get the most out of the build you will want to figure out where to put the ATOs in order to increase your damage. for a brute, it's a more straightforward smashie-smashie.

Not enough/too much cowbell.

Occasionally I consider putting together some art project where I would build a model of what the building would actually look like from the outside. Emphasis on occasionally and consider.

erp

I try to diversify. I don't like pure defense sets, because sometimes defense fails you. Ideally (and this is for a scrapper), I will try to get around 40%+ defense to melee, 50%+ resistance to what I expect to fight against, at least one (and preferably 2) heals, and at least one "oh shit" button. For bio and radiation armor (which are admittedly my faves), this is pretty easily done. Since my defense is generally active, I can get away with not blindly softcapping defense. also, I like to put a LOT of knockdown and other crowd control, which helps with not needing to cap things.

Feel better soon!

Well, first of all it DOES do something. It restricts the highest enemies to their weakest attacks. How well would your character do if they were restricted to their weakest attack? I get it that endurance drain needs to affect enemies differently than enemy's endurance drains affect characters, because the deck is so overly stacked in our favor. Secondly, it is remarkably easy to build for endurance drain, significantly easier than building for health drain. You can drain a foe from 100 to zero in an extremely short period of time that is a tiny fraction of the time you can drain health from 100 to zero. If endurance drain immediately led to AV/GM incapacitation, then people would build for that. I think that people are blinded by their cognitive biases, and only judging by dps. Endurance drain significantly improves your survival (just like sleep, or -damage from kinetic melee, etc.) but people don't care because their survival is practically guaranteed and so they just want moar dps.

If you are playing a scrapper like you are playing a tanker (and by that I mean slotting any and all damage procs), you are not going to notice a tremendous pickup. Procs don't crit, and the parts of your overall damage that can be enhanced are minimal. Where you will see the most benefit is when you are at +100% damage from slotting, and using critical hits intelligently.

I would like to point out that this was me making fun of my altitis and not actually camping names.

I really didn't enjoy Snarky the Duck very much.

About 4,900 per account…

They are all similar, it is true. I think they overtuned the new Axe set, and out of those four it is far and above the top performer in my experience, but it takes a little getting used to since it's kind of a ranged set now in many ways. War Mace is extremely satisfying; it's got tremendous AoE and I seem to recall the CRUNCH factor of the sound effects are great (I usually play with sound off). Broadsword and Katana are basically the same set; some people like the speed of katana better than broadsword since it has slightly better damage per animation/second numbers. The sword sets have Parry/Divine Avalanche which helps a LOT with your survival. But this: Pretty much sums things up. It's nice to enjoy the animations!

Or, OR the ground is rising.

Duly noted. I refuse to give up "fungible", however; it's the right word!

I have been told in the past that every IO that exists as both a leveled IO or an attuned one (so Siphon Insight, but not ATOs) has a level attached to it, even if it is attuned. I think the level resets randomly within the allowable range when it is converted. You can test this if you are sufficiently bored: Take a level 10 Kismet, attune it, then convert it by Defense until you get a LotG (lvl 25+).

@Bopper while we have you here, I was hoping you could answer a question if you happen to know it. When figuring out the window while the Critical Strike is active, there has been some confusion as to exactly when the 3.25 second window begins. I have always assumed that it begins after the Animation Time Before Effect (which is 0.767 seconds for Hemorrhage). However, people have pointed out that the Crit Strikes ATO (both regular and Superior) also has an Animation Time Before Effect of 0.5 seconds, and so the 3.25 second window would actually open a half second later? I've never bothered to test this out, but it would mean that some powers would be available for increased crit odds that I had assumed were not available. TL;DR: If you have the ATO in Hemo and it triggers, when does the 3.25 second window begin? Is it 0.767 seconds after the power is activated, or is it 1.267 seconds after the power is activated? Thanking you in advance!

A lot of this is relative though, like when you realize that smashing is a lot more effective against Zeus titans than lethal. As Ukase says, the wiki is a great short cut, although I'm inclined to check City of Data (all hail Uberguy) for the final word. In terms of specific weakness rather than relative weakness, Carnies consistently have a -20% resistance to lethal damage.

If I had my druthers (and keep in mind that I am drutherless): - something strikes me as askew that an optimum build for an attack is two 53 a/d HOs and four damage procs. - however I adore effect and cc procs and would love to see more of them!