Maelwys

Thanks for the response. Point taken RE Snow Storm/RoP. TT is mainly there as a mule for the DB set (plus the stacking immobilize effect to keep larger mobs away from me and/or bouncing in Sleet) - it was either that or Night Fall... AoE damage output is not really this toon's forte! 🤣 Unfortunately Life Drain is currently procced; and moving the Recharge-laden VA set to it would floor its activation rate (even the 5PPM VA Proc would only have 47.58% chance). I'm also not sure that the Absorb would actually benefit much from this - its buff seems to currently center from the caster (me!) anyway rather than the Sleet pseudopet. Currently Sleet is recastable within the VA proc's 20s duration; and with an average spawn of enemies it'll have capped liklihood of activation. So best case it might just overrwrite itself a bit sooner (on average every ~12.5s rather than every ~18.5s). Without ATOs being a concern I'd typically Slot Sleet with 1x Lv50+5 Rech plus 1x Acc/Rech HO or Ragnarok. Panacea Proc in Spirit Ward does indeed buff the target; they'll get a chance for some Health and Endurance upon casting and every 10 seconds thereafter (chance is exactly 50%). In *most* heals Panacea proc will end up buffing the target; Spirit Tree and Triage Beacon are particularly worthwhile...

Given Nature (Heals/Regen/Absorb, +Damage/ToHit, +Endurance Reduction, Damage Resistance buffs) and Dark (Slow, -ToHit/Regen/DamageResistance debuffs, +Stealth, more +Damage Resistance Buffs)... and all the +Defence and +Damage from Thug Leadership skills... Yeah, /Marine all the way. Shifting Tides by itself would clinch the deal; let alone the Synergy between Power of the Depths + Nature's various Regeneration effects and Toroidal Bubble capping your other Resistances. And it brings Endurance and Recovery buffs that the other sets are lacking in. And on-demand enemy deletion in Brine. TL;DR:

Also their individual abilities will often differ from power to power. Such as this rather cheeky little high five (600% normal accuracy!) Flooring ToHit chance is generally the thing to shoot for; as you can't do much about all their various +Accuracy Mods.

An Archvillian's level should be visible in your target window. Different AVs have different possible level ranges that they can spawn at, but when encountering one within a mission they'll generally obey the Team Leader's difficulty setting. Giant Monsters (not AVs!) are the ones that have hidden levels. For example: Jurassik spawns at level 40 and Kraken spawns at level 25. Or do you mean an AV's RANK bonus? That's always 1.5 From https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Attack_Mechanics:

I think looking at the build invokes enough panic as it is... 😛

It's mainly useful as a "turtle up" option for Countering large amounts of Enemy Debuffs. If you're not facing lots of -Defense, -ToHit, -Recharge, -Regen, etc. (especially on hardmode) then you likely won't need it; but it's nice to have in a pinch if you can fit it.

Salutations 'fender forum dwellers. It's new toon time again... and I've been cooking a build which started out as more of a concept thing, then quickly evolved into a "just how far can I push this?" exercise. I realize that Cold is more of a meta pick on Corruptors (for good reason, especially Ice/Colds) but I wanted to make a new "useful" Defender. And since the base buff/debuff values of Cold are better on the Defender AT it is almost able to bump an otherwise unbuffed ally directly to Softcap by itself. Combining that with Dark Blast (whose -ToHit debuffs are likewise maximized on a 'fender) can push things even further; providing plenty of wiggle room for incoming Defense Debuffs even before Ageless etc. So this pairing on a Defender should be able to handle all a Team's +Defense needs plus the usual gamut of Cold Debuffs; whilst also leaving plenty of opportunity to procbomb its own attacks and fit in a few fun/utility picks. What I've got at the moment: MITIGATION (Others) Cold Bubbles + Arctic Fog + Maneuvers = Allied +Defense sitting at ~40.18% before Clicky Incarnates. Arctic Fog is also granting 31.4% Resistance to Fire/Cold/Energy and Slow Debuffs. Frostwork can be kept up on 6 allies simultaneously; increasing their MaxHP by >1000 (hardcapping the majority) plus some Toxic resistance. Spirit Ward can be kept up on one ally, granting a +506.28 Absorb buffer (renews at +50.628 every 2s) plus some healing via a Panacea proc. Each of the blasts inflict -9.38 -ToHit. The basic ST attack chain can keep at least 5 stacks up constantly on a single target; so even versus a Level 54 AV that's still another 0.13*0.48*(5*9.38)=2.927% -ToHit. Tenebrous Tentacles can stack it twice for a little ongoing AoE debuffery; and Blackstar inflicts a whopping -62.5% for 20s every ~40s. MITIGATION (Self) Personal Mitigation is leaning quite heavily on S/L Typed Defense (45.31%) and Ranged Positional Defense (28.86%). Due to all the -ToHit inflicted via the blasts; when pew-pewing stuff it will almost always end up effectively softcapped vs Ranged. A good chunk of MaxHP (a hair over 1.5k) and a >200HP Life Drain every 6.204s. Plus both Defender ATO procs (meh) and the Preventive Medicine Chance-for-Absorb Unique. Resistances aren't wonderful (at least for S/L/N/T/P - it's at 75% vs Cold and not bad vs Fire and Energy) but I'm not sure they're needed. I've got a variant of the current build with Rune of Protection (via dropping either Snow Storm or Assault) but I'm currently leaning towards not taking it; and picking up Clarion for Mez protection. OTHER DEBUFFERY Heat Loss and Benumb and Sleet are Perma. A Sleet pseudopet patch can nearly be out constantly (could shave another ~0.5s off with an extra slot). Infrigidate (with an Achilles' Heel Proc @71.6% activation chance) is part of the regular attack chain. Snow Storm is taken too, albeit perhaps a bit late in the build. Blackstar is up roughly every 40s and aside from the aforementioned -62.5 ToHit also has a capped chance of activating the Fury of the Gladiator -Res Proc. DAMAGE OUTPUT Lots of procs. Activation Rate admittedly suffers a bit because I've chosen the Agility Core Paragon in order to bump up the Defense numbers and get the important Cold Powers perma'ed... but it also *just about* gets the Infrigidate > Gloom > Moonbeam (fast) > LifeDrain ST Attack Chain seamless (using truncated Arcanatime and assuming no additional delays/lag - unlikely - leaves Infrigidate 0.144s short, which is virtually unnoticeable in practice and can technically be closed with another +10% Global recharge via Ageless/Lores/Empowerment Buffs/Whatever). Patron pool Build Up with a Gaussian Proc is almost up as often as Blackstar. Assault Radial Hybrid, and Lore Pets (BP's extra -Cold res is pretty nice). There's also a Patron Pet (I know they tend to die to a stiff breeze, but hear me out...) whose main attacks gain the benefit of two damage procs plus Soulbound; and has at least 25% inherent Defense on top of the Bubbles/Fog/Maneuvers. It's also Perma. The extra damage, debuffs and CC it provides may be forgettable whilst teaming; but it can be a target for Spirit Ward and Frostwork when soloing. Anyway, here's the actual build: Defender - Cold_Dark (IceMastery+Infrigidate).mbd Thoughts? I've been going back and forth a bit over whether or not to pick up Rune of Protection (which would likely involve dropping either Assault or Snow Storm) - aside from the obvious benefits of RoP itself, that would let me swap the Steadfast Unique in Arctic Fog to a 3rd Gladiator's Armor, then swap the Zephyr IO in Mystic Flight to a Winter's Gift Unique. Or alternatively, I could drop the Sorcery pool entirely in favour of the Medicine Pool (swapping Spirit Ward for Aid Other + moving the Panacea back into Health; and swapping Mystic Flight for Super Jump). Whilst I have played several bubblers in my time; Cold's buffs not gaining any long-term benefit from Power Boost / Power Build Up and factoring in consistent high -ToHit debuffs makes the balancing act a bit more interesting... 🤔🥶 [EDIT:] I messed around a little on Brainstorm this afternoon ahead of building it properly on the Live servers. The toon seems to perform more or less as expected; and the Defender ATO procs are actually triggering pretty reliably in TT (~26.95% chance per enemy hit for a 107HP AoE heal every ~4.5s; although it won't trigger more than once per activation) and Sleet (~25.64% chance per enemy hit for an AoE +7.5% Absorb buff on cast only... but it lasts for 20s and doesn't stack so is effectively "perma") which might actually be useful given that those powers will be spammed vs larger mobs.

Technically you could also go for an Epic Pool with a Def-based shield (Mace or Ice) rather than either Energy or Soul for Power Boost/Power Build Up. It's not optimal from a survivability point of view to do that since you'd be giving up a lot of +Resistance buffage; but it would at least let you hit the S/L (and/or Energy) Softcap without investing too much into set bonuses... which could free you up to procbomb more attacks. On a Defender; ED-capped for +Defence% your Allied Bubbles will be giving ballpark 23.5%, plus another 15.6% for Dispersion Bubble; for 39.1% total. Maneuvers is another 5.5% ish. Radial Clarion can boost the Allied Bubbles from 23.5% to 35.5% once every 120 seconds. That's ~56.6% Def for allies without Power Boost/Power Build Up; and ~21.1% Def for you. [Frozen Armor] from Ice Mastery can grant you another 23.5% to S/L plus a further 6% from the Steadfast and Gladiator Armor IOs; so you can sit at ~50.6% S/L Def before any other set bonuses. [Scorpion Shield] from Mace Mastery can grant 23.5% to S/L and 15.7% to Energy but won't take Resistance IO sets. On a Corruptor; ED-capped for +Defence% your Allied Bubbles will be giving ballpark 17.6%, plus another 11.7% for Dispersion Bubble; for 29.3% total. Maneuvers is another 4.1% ish. Radial Clarion can boost the Allied Bubbles from 17.6% to 26.6% once every 120 seconds. That's ~42.4% Def for allies without Power Boost/Power Build Up; and ~15.8% Def for you. [Frozen Armor] from Ice Mastery can grant you another 20% to S/L plus a further 6% from the Steadfast and Gladiator Armor IOs; so less than 4% S/L Def needed to softcap. [Scorpion Shield] from Mace Mastery can grant 20% to S/L and 13.3% to Energy but won't take Resistance IO sets. Whilst Masterminds weren't mentioned in the OP, they don't really need to think about Epic/Patron selection as their Mace Mastery pool actually includes Power Boost. Their base numbers are identical to Corruptors; but Power Boost will bring their Allied Bubbles to 25% by itself and to 34% when stacked with with Radial Clarion. Meaning their teammates (and Henchmen!) can sit at 49.8% Def even before the Pet Aura IOs and stuff like Protector Bot Bubbles or Thug Maneuvers. (And for the sake of completeness, the numbers for Controllers are functionally identical to Corruptors, aside from getting access to [Rock Armor] from the Earth Mastery pool... which can grant a smidge more S/L Def at ~22.5% but also won't take Resistance IO sets)

FF has substantially Stronger Buff and Debuff Values on a Defender. A Corruptor will get a little higher base damage from Force Bomb. So by that logic it's "stronger" on Defenders. However by going Defender you'll inflict lower damage from your Blast set... and FF is a fairly passive support set so you'll likely be spending quite a lot of time blasting. Also; usually combining any AT's FF Bubbles with Power Boost (and/or Radial Clarion) will stick your allies firmly at the Softcap; so the higher base buffage on Defenders can be a moot point.

Mids hasn't factored the SMoT Proc in for quite a few updates now. You can edit Mid's database yourself for stuff like this (and I often will) but chances are good that it'll bork it again next update. [Edit] - Found the relevant chatter on their discord about it: Note that the latest (non-dev) app version made available was v3.7.5 back in July. So we're currently stuck with the borked version.

IIRC the Repeat Offenders were more social-and-teaming with a slant towards high performance shenanighanry involving buffers/debuffers (all-defender TFs stacking insane levels of debuffs on things, etc) rather than Roleplaying. They had specialized squads of particular powersets/ATs such as an all-kinetics SG ("Pinball Wizards" IIRC?) But if they're on Everlasting these days (and they didn't intentionally move there to escape all the dumb on Excelsior) ... maybe? 🤔🥸👮🏽‍♂️👷🏻‍♂️🤠

A few quick tests: It's also worth pointing out what happens with insufficient accuracy slotting; via swapping those Acc/Dam HOs for some Common +Rech IOs: (Note the +ToHit buff from Targeting Drone gets copied to the pseudopet and affects the initial hit check, then it drops off and subsequent hit checks use base accuracy) As you'll notice, procs do technically work in Whirlpool, but they've a rubbish activation chance. Because the power itself doesn't inflict any damage or debuff upon activation (it just summons a pseudopet) you don't get a heightened chance of proc activation immediately upon casting... instead the pseudopet just gets one regular proc activation opportunity; then another proc activation opportunity after 10 seconds have elapsed. IMO if you've nowhere else to slot an Achilles' Heel and/or Annihilation "Chance for -Resistance Debuff" Proc; or you've have lots of enhancement slots going spare? Sure. But in Water Blast the likes of Steam Spray, Water Burst and Geyser are all going to have much higher proc activation chances.

Procs should work in Whirlpool. Although I'd not expect them to kick in hugely regularly. With a 25ft Radius, each 3.5PPM proc ought to have 15.3% chance of kicking in once every 10 seconds per enemy hit. Have you stuck a decent amount of accuracy in the power itself; and enabled Pet Damage Inflicted in your combat tab?

It was i27 Page 4 - see here - and there were a LOT of things affected... if memory serves, it was roughly 10% of all the NPC attacks in the game that got hit by the balance pass. However as far as I know they didn't actually list all the ENEMY attacks in any of the patch notes; only the PLAYER attacks. Note the bit "Previously, attacks checked for defense typings of any damage types involved in the attack. For example, most Ice Blast attacks are Cold/Smashing and when checked against a player's defenses, it would look at both Cold and Smashing defenses and use whichever was highest." so if an enemy attack has any smashing or lethal component at all then chances are that smashing or lethal typed defense used to work against it...

Yeah it's 3PPM base, same as Panacea. I'll regularly throw Power Transfer Procs into Stamina and any other passive recovery/endurance powers (Brute Energy Mastery is particularly good here with both Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection) plus a Panacea Proc into Health, and it's pretty common to see all of them go off simultaneously. There was a time whenever only one copy of the Power Transfer Proc could kick in every 10 seconds if you slotted multiple copies into toggles/autos; but these days thankfully they all stack.