Maelwys

Run the first DA Arc (Heather Townshend) through Ouroboros Flashback; and at the end pick the "Incarnate Components" option. You'll get 1x Empyrean Merit plus a decent chance for a Rare or Very Rare Incarnate Salvage drop of your choice. It's a very fast arc to complete (easily <20mins if you're not intentionally dawdling) and because it counts as incarnate content once you have all your level buffs from existing T3+ Incarnate Abilities then you start to drastically outlevel the foes and utterly steamroll everything. Decent source of EXP on +4x8 too if you're looking for Vet Levels. If you get sick of it, you can always just email Empyrean or Transcendent Merits to yourself from alts. I believe you'll need to actually perform a click with a GOTO command. The closest would probably be to use a FOLLOW and then a STAY command (which is just "GOTO the point where you are already standing" under the hood)

I will not buy this record, it is scratched. My hovercraft is full of eels. Our postillion has been struck by lightning. That pond it seems me many multiplied of fishes. Let us amuse rather to the fishing.

Honestly? Probably power bugfixes. And not even big sweeping "make Regen and/or Empathy viable again" ones; but smaller stuff like how Tanker Lightning Rod is coded as a power Execution Redirect and all the other AT versions are pseudopet Entity Creations. Or the fact that +Absorb buffs which are flagged as 'overwrite rather than stack' don't actually get their old copy of the buff removed until after their new copy has already been applied (which means that those latter buffs will often encounter and get drastically reduced by the hard cap). Or the fact that the amount of Regeneration granted by certain powers (like DNA Siphon) is affected by enemy level but not others (like Rise to the Challenge). Things that have in the bugfix pile for aaaaaaages but aren't rated as a high enough problem to ever actually, y'know, fix.

Procs and Power pools are nice, but IMO by themselves they're rarely the primary factor behind whether a given toon will perform well or not. A large part of Controller performance on teams is going to come from their "Support" set; and certain powersets simply don't care about the higher buff/debuff scalars of a Defender because you become "capped" just as easily on other lower-scalar ATs. Kinetics is a prime example of this: Fulcrum Shift spam is going to get you to the damage cap regardless of whether it's from a Defender or a Controller or even a Mastermind. Marine Affinity is another one that can work better on non-Defenders - the more friendly entities attacking (e.g. MM Henchmen or Controller Imps/Phantom Army/Vines/etc) the more damage Shifting Tide procs deal. There are also a good few standout "Control" powersets: Plant is widely regarded as the best all-rounder; to the point that many won't play it because it makes things "too easy" (Seeds of Confusion + Creepers can practically carry a whole team by itself) . However Arsenal can come pretty close (Smoke Cannister + Sleep Grenade/Flashbang spam) and has the ability to tank AVs. And obviously Illusion becomes very good too whenever you get sufficient recharge for Perma Phantom Army (and give them the Soulbound proc) - but opportunities to leverage Containment are few and far between on it. And IMO this is the biggest point worth making about damage procs on Controllers - using them in attacks that have low base damage but reasonably high base recharge (e.g. many controller abilities) will provide a noticeable boost to that attack's damage without you having to jump through hoops to leverage containment... and whilst they don't benefit from +damage buffs; they will from -resistance debuffs (e.g. what your 'Support' powerset is may be very relevant here). Epic/Patron pools can also provide a big boost; depending on how you choose to go. Armor toggles. Decently-damaging attacks. Powerful Debuffs (like Poisonous Ray). More Pets. Endurance Management tools. Mez Protection. Self-Healing. Self-Rez. Damage/ToHit buffs. And Power Boost (absolutely huge for Forcefield and Time Manipulation). As for pool powers? Specific ones can be leveraged to add a large amount of performance in specific situations ('Hasten' for Perma-PA Illusion Controllers; for example) and whenever you combine them with Procs a few pool powers will become surprisingly good sources of damage and/or debuffs (such as 'Weaken Resolve' from the Force of Will pool) but IMO usually they'll only be providing minor additional utility or a filler attack or two; rather than a character-defining boost in performance.

That build is geared towards big Resistance numbers via alternating RoP and Melee Core Hybrid (which doesn't work so well ever since the change to Rune of Protection duration)... and whilst it's still "durable" without those... IMO gaining ~20% additional res to E/N/F/C at the cost of having virtually no Global Recharge or Damage Procs and ~40% less MaxHP is quite a large build compromise. And yes, a few of the slotting arrangements make little sense (SMoT in Jab for example - and using KO Blow as a Mule for a Winter's Set...) but it's useful as a starting point and/or showcase. They've also been debated to death before - one of my favourite exchanges is on one of Diantane's old rant threads.

Might be a mixture of both. With no superfluous toggles and averaged Panacea procs you'll have a net recovery of 2.895 End/Sec. Footstomp on autofire in the above build will consume an average of 1.47 End/Sec without FF procs and 1.74 End/Sec with procs; leaving plenty for doing other things. If you're going balls to the wall using a constant attack chain of KOB > CP > HM > FS > CP > HM (note: both Haymakers are optional depending on your current recharge buffs - you can almost always drop the first even without Ageless) then you'll eventually bottom out after roughly 65 seconds of attacking flat out; assuming no inspirations or external recovery buffs. I would consider a toon that's self-sufficient for anything over 60secs of "full out attacking" without Incarnate clickies or Insps to be in a very good place endurancewise. My VEAT Widow can run themselves dry in roughly 30 seconds and is the only toon which I always run Ageless Core constantly. Regarding playstyle... about the only thing that might apply is that I tend to pop Lore Pets regularly whenever I'm soloing to speed things up (and the typical one I use for my INV/SS is Radial Banished Pantheon - which have about a 50% uptime on this) and my movement keybinds all have "$$inspexec_slot 5" on the end of them (with Rez Insp drops disabled) to keep the skittles flowing. But I do that on all toons, not just Tankers. [EDIT]: And one last thing actually - whilst the above build is very close to what I'm running; I don't take the flight pool. So Fly is replaced with Mighty Leap; and Hover is replaced with Physical Perfection (slotted with another Power Transfer proc) therefore my own Tanker has a little bit more passive recovery: ~0.24 End/Sec. AFAIK it's just as pants now as it's always been. Many many moons ago; loooooong before inventions my old Katana/Regen Scrapper main used to swear by it (along with Laser Beam Eyes) partly because of the 100% KD effect; and partly because at the time having a few attacks that didn't inflict Lethal damage sounded like a good idea for fighting Robotic critters 🙈

IIRC Arachnos Endurance Drain/-Recovery attacks are mostly Mu; and those are all flagged as Energy typed and so you'll be dodging the vast majority of them. The -Recovery debuff they inflict also tends to be quite low and short (e.g. -50% for 4 seconds) so it'll take a fair number of them hitting you to cause noteworthy trouble to your blue bar. Especially if you're getting Panacea procs and chugging Inspirations as you go. It's certainly nothing that Ageless Radial (with the Debuff Resistance and +Rech; rather than the Recovery and +Rech) can't handle. Tanker INV Resist Energies also grants 25% Endurance Drain and Recovery debuff resistance natively; which will stack nicely with Ageless Radial if required. Use Taunt. Its built-in -100% Range debuff will make them come towards you. Or break line of sight (run behind the nearest Geometry like a corner) which does the same thing. Alternatively: Jousting. Jump up to them with an attack queued up; then let yourself drop back to the ground again and wallop them as you fall past. After a few repeats of this eventually their AI will queue a melee attack up and they'll approach you themselves. Technically you could also take Air Superiority or Hurl for the -Fly debuff... but I haven't bothered with that guff since circa issue 8.

The "overkill" Defense in Invincibility (since it softcaps you with just one foe in range) plus INVs native DDR should help you weather most Defense Debuffs without Ageless Radial; but there's nothing to stop you using it to smooth things out. Whenever I play that toon I typically follow my oldskool Tank mentality from live of "jump into middle of a big mob and activate Footstomp, then jump into the middle of the next mob (and/or throw a Taunt at them) and wallop things until there are only a few upright foes left, then repeat" so I'll have a constant stream of nearby foes to ramp the numbers up on my Invincibility (and on my Melee Core Hybrid, should I choose to be running it over Assault). Endurance consumption isn't an issue with all the boosts from the globals, set bonuses and passive accolades (~2.5 Net End/Sec plus Panacea Procs) as long as I'm not running superfluous toggles like Focused Accuracy and my Travel Power and Sprint etc. during combat. Using Combat Jumping and Hurdle for unsuppressed movement is a bit of a throwback in these days of Combat Teleport, but it's fun and thematic and it doesn't slow me down that much once the train gets rolling. However I'm honestly not sure if I'd be able to personally put up with the slowness of running Hover/Fly constantly during combat on a melee toon. Regarding Arachnos specifically... they have a fair mixture of Toxic and Psychic typed attacks, which is where the hole lies in INV's defense. Ageless won't help with that, but Barrier (or even Rebirth) Destiny or Melee Core Hybrid will, as will simply bulldozing through the blighters and popping the resulting dropped Inspirations like candy. However you have more than one layer of mitigation: after your Defense there's still your Damage Resistances, MaxHP pool, Regeneration rate and Absorb buffs to get through and all the Knockdown spam (and occasional hold/stun) you're inflicting will slow them down. I personally haven't found them that bothersome. Now a mapful of Carnie Master Illusionists...? 🙈

There are two problems with Thunder Strike... one is the comparatively low DPA; and the other is the long Animation Time Before Effect (ATBE). It takes nearly two full seconds before its hit actually "lands"; and as @Warshades pointed out in an earlier post, on teams that means quite often you'll end up dealing damage to corpses. I think if I didn't have both Shield Charge and Ball Lightning to fall back on in addition to the rest of the Electric Melee abilities, I'd probably take and Procbomb TS in order to shore up my AoE damage. But as it is, IMO TS is not required for AoE damage coverage and it's demonstrably detrimental to your ST damage output. It's a decent place for a -Res Proc (which is the only real benefit of a long ATBE) but so is Jacob's Ladder. And whilst Jacob's base numbers aren't wonderful, with procs it'll make an above average ST damage filler attack that can inflict -Res and will occasionally hit more than one target.

I had a little time this afternoon to get the spreadsheet out and poke at my own ElecM/Shield... and from what I can tell that's indeed essentially the best way to go. There's zero benefit to using Havoc Punch over Charged Brawl whenever you're purposely trying to build three Focus stacks. Because it really comes down to CI>JL>CB plus either Zapp or Ball Lightning (because both bring your average DPA up) between Assassin Shocks. Which leaves a little wiggle room in the recharge of Zapp, JL and AS. So sticking an extra proc or two in AS (3x ATOs+Hecatomb+GS+ToD) actually works out a smidge better than "best case" AS crits without them (5x ATOs+Hecatomb). The last proc only has an extremely minor benefit over a +5 Hecatomb Dmg or Dmg/End though. So all things considered I think mine'll be respeccing into this shortly: [EDIT: Mids build file link removed; see this post for a more accurate breakdown and multiple build options] (Still no Kismet required. OwtS having the slots over Tough is purely personal preference - I tend to run without the latter toggled and keep the former for emergencies!)

Reactive for the -Res is generally more useful in PVE content, with the -MaxHP from Degenerative pulling ahead on tougher targets like AVs/GMs that have substantially higher HP. However... a lot of folk run Reactive so I see more cases where its Debuff is maxed out and my copy makes no difference. And for Elec/Shield Stalkers my gut is that Degenerative can help more than usual because you're tending to open the fight with two big AoEs. During a Shield Charge/Lightning Rod Alpha Strike, your interface proc will get two opportunities to kick in. If Reactive kicked in on the first hit, only the second attack gets the -res benefit. If Reactive kicked in on the second hit, neither of the attacks gets the -res benefit. But if Degenerative kicks in on either of those two hits... then you will still get the full benefit of its -MaxHP effect. On top of any Proc damage. Which may cause things to die that would have been left on a sliver of health. So I tend to come down on the side of Degenerative (even just for the sake of being a better AV/GM killer!)

The only other thing that's now popping into my head is that neither Lightning Rod nor Shield Charge utilize offensive procs well on Stalkers; because they're effectively pseudopet summons (I believe Tankers are the only AT that differ here due to their Lightning Rod not being coded as "CreateEntity" but instead "ExecutePower"). So if you're looking for a good place to stick that 5-piece Winter Set; perhaps try Shield Charge. A self-affecting proc like a Force Feedback Proc in the 6th Slot will work just fine though. Taking Jacob's Ladder will give a higher ST Damage (especially with the -res proc going off more often); but taking Thunderstrike will likely result in better AoE coverage given how tricky it is to position narrow melee cones properly... and if you Procbomb Thunderstrike the full proc damage will apply to the secondary "splash" targets. So all things considered I'd probably lean towards something like the below (which doesn't require a Kismet or Maneuvers; and may even be able to forgo Ageless). Stalker - Electric_SD IOed (TS).mbd

Looks very similar slotting and power selection to mine actually - I skipped Maneuvers in favour of OwtS; took Jacob's Ladder instead of Thunderstrike (although it's also using 5x Winters + a FoTG -res proc!) and leaned a little more into +Regen than Resistances but otherwise almost identical. My Kismet is sitting in Combat Jumping rather than Grant Cover (parts of Grant Cover affect you; but I haven't tested if that includes a Kismet 120sProc activation) since I didn't need the extra +Def aspect in CJ to hit the softcaps. About the only thing that might be worth considering is that I didn't slot a full ATO set in Assassin's Shock - forgoing some local recharge aspect in favour of a Hecatomb and Touch of Death Proc. IIRC when I worked out my attack chain the additional global recharge really wasn't doing much for me.

Maybe try this: Darktech Robot-Dark MM mk 3m.mbd Shuffled a few slots around, +5'ed some IOs, got some more raw recovery aspect and picked up your Accolades. (Also fixed the lack of ED-capped +Res aspect in Equip Robot and amended the 4th slot in the Protector Bots to the +Res Aura) If you're intending to be running Fly over Group Fly then the slotting of those two can be swapped; but I typically only toggle on Fly to pop Afterburner.

Aye but it's 5PPM; so always seems a shame not to put it in the lower recharge powers. But all's good as long as it's not the Energy Font... 😜

Heys again Neiska! The only pet that wants KB>KD now is the AssBot (purely for the regular non-incendiary missiles). Regarding the Protector Bot bubbles - yeah it's 13% base now; so take your slotting, add 1 and multiply it by 13% (13%*1.3188=17.1444%) - whilst they no longer double-stack on the Drones and AssBot; having them affect the Protector Bots is handy as is the fact that Protector Bots themselves don't get tied up in indefinitely recasting their bubbles every few seconds. And there are shenanigans to be had with things like Power Boost and Clarion Radial Destiny whenever you realise that it counts as a boostable long-duration defence buff. Regarding Endurance... Drones are nearly self-sufficient; but Protector Bots and AssBot (despite having 50% uptime on Conserve Power) both want as much Endurance Reduction as you can give them. The Bots/ MM I play most often has 33% in Drones, 86% in Protector Bots and 42% in AssBot and all but the Drones will eventually run dry. Whilst Dark doens't get any allied +Recovery/Endurance tools the Panacea Proc works in Twilight Grasp; which might help a smidge over time. Talons Radial all the way. Banished Pantheon Radial can output a fair amount of damage and -res debuffs providing that you can keep the boss alive... but Talons are far better at AoE damage mitigation and improving your (multiple!) heals; and the Talon Boss's "Seasonal Shift" AoE ability has an insanely high target cap. Battle Drones yes, Protector Bots no. Ideally stick an Explosive Strike proc in the Drones and Assbot. This is my default "trying to maximise damage whilst fitting in the four most important aura IOs" slotting: (Dam and Acc/End ATOs) - Endred is ~33%. (Acc/Dam/End and Dam/End ATOs; plus a LotG +Rech) - EndRed is ~60%. (Acc/Dam and End/Aura ATOs) - EndRed is ~23%. Unfortunately that still leaves the Assault Bot and Protector Bots a bit underslotted for Endurance Reduction, but they'll last a reasonable amount of time before running dry. However if you're taking Musculature Alpha and are slotting Tactics for +ToHit (as many MMs do!) then you can get away with swapping the Acc/Dam HO in the Protector Bot and Assault Bot for a Lv50+5 Acc/Dam/EndRed, which largely solves the issue. Fitting in ED-Capped Defense aspect in the Protector Bots is very tricky - something has to give... (Acc/Dam and End/Aura ATOs) - EndRed is ~23%. (Acc/Dam/End and Dam/End ATOs plus a Lv50+5 Acc/Dam/End Set IO. LoTGs are Def and +Rech) - EndRed is ~85%. (Dam and Acc/End ATOs) - Endred is ~33%. ...and in this case it's the Assbot's Accuracy and Damage aspect. With Musculature Core Alpha and Tactics it's just about OK if you're not up against enemies with Defence buffs. I'll also back up a lot of what @StrikerFox wrote above regarding other slotting tweaks; however it might be worth pointing out that /Dark really only benefits minimally from Global Recharge - it wants to get the Dark Servant Perma (which the OP's build has already!) and multiple copies of Tar Patch out (having two out constantly is nice for taking down AVs/GMs... but as long as you've got one up for every group or even every other group in "regular content" it's fine!)

Positron's Blast, Bombardment, Javelin Volley and Cloud Senses make 4... are you sticking an ATO in for the 5th? (It has low base accuracy and can take up to 58.02% local recharge aspect before 3.5PPM procs get negatively impacted; so I lean towards 4x procs + 2x Acc/Stun/Rechs!)

Boxing and Kick are primarily there as prerequisites + to ramp up Cross Punch's damage; if you drop one of them you'd also need to take Tough or drop Weave. If you want to swap Boxing with Tough (drop Unstoppable + move its global to Tough) to try + fit a better ST attack in; go for it. But the power pool selections are already set here so you're really just left with Kick (switch its place with Boxing and potentially swap the last slot out for another Force Feedback Proc) and Jab (very "Meh"). Or just drop the notion entirely and use those slots elsewhere and/or pick up Hand Clap (for example). Honestly the only attacks you'll actually end up using at higher levels on SS are Haymaker, KO Blow, Cross Punch and Foot Stomp (and with FF Procs going you can sometimes even forgo Haymaker). Rotating these in the above build provides consistent +Recharge, +Absorb and SMoT procs in addition to inflicting Knockdown, Hold and the very occasional Stun. So Boxing and Punch are both relegated to the role of "filler" attacks at lower levels or on those few occasions where using Footstomp is irrelevant... but I'd sooner use Boxing than Punch there due to its slightly better DPA and the (remote) chance to Stun-Stack with Cross Punch.

I get the jeebies taking Alphas with Recharge Aspect unless the toon isn't proccing their attacks out. Boxing is a bit pants, yes, but with the base damage and utility boosts from taking both Kick and Cross Punch IIRC it becomes roughly on par with Punch; and having an extra ST attack at very low levels is situationally useful to fill a gap when exemplaring. OF's knockdown Proc has a little synergy with the other powers and its set bonuses, whilst comparatively underwhelming, are all useful for this build and got the toon's defence totals perfectly even (which my OCD really appreciates! 😁). The contents of its 6th slot might look rather funky too... but there isn't much recharge aspect in the power so a 4.5 PPM purple damage proc activates reasonably well despite its low base recharge (~21.5% chance); and since all the other ST attacks in the build are crammed full there really wasn't a better place to put it. All that said, I think this toon (albeit a version with SJ instead of Fly) is the only one in my stable which uses more than one OF enhancement. Leaning into Knockdown is a bit of a throwback too - back on live it even had Air Superiority for a while!

As a visual example: here's an Energy Melee/Rad Armor Scrapper who I enjoy playing in regular content and occasionally bring Active S/L AE Farming at +4x8. The defense numbers you see below are with Shadow Meld Active; which has roughly 50% uptime. Without it, he's at a smidge under 15% S/L Defense. His build is not focused on mitigation but instead on Damage Output via Procs and enough Global Recharge to create a high-DPA seamless attack chain. Scrappers only have a resistance cap of 75%; and their Maximum HP is also lower than Brutes/Tankers (this toon only clocks in at ~2008!) so you don't see them used much in AE farming. However whilst he definitely can't claim to kill as many things as quickly as an optimised Tanker, his procced Radiation Therapy, Ground Zero and Whirling Hands can still make short work of Minions and LTs whilst he focuses on the Bosses with EM's high Single Target burst damage - and the resulting mob killing rate is fast enough that enough Inspirations come in to keep him alive between Shadowmeld recasts (alongside occasional uses of Void Radial Judgement; and Barrier Destiny for emergencies!)

You just about have sufficiently high passive regeneration providing that you have all your +HP/Endurance Accolades and Particle Shielding is active. However without Meltdown running your highest resistance figure (Smashing/Lethal) is only at 78.5%. It should be 90%. And your Highest Defence figure (Smashing/Lethal) is a smidge shy of 31% without Melee Radial Embodiment running. It should be 45%. Whilst the -ToHit debuffs from Beta Decay and Dark Obliteration can help a bit, they'll only affect the foes they can hit. On a typical farming map there will be several times that number shooting at you. Unfortunately you're also not outputting anywhere near enough AoE damage to defeat foes quickly enough to allow you to keep yourself afloat via Inspirations; so as-is, I suspect the only way that build will survive in a +4x8 Asteroid map is if it's a S/L farm and you're keeping at least 10 foes within 10ft of you with Melee Radial Embodiment running. If you want to farm at that sort of pace; then pick a single common Damage type (like Smashing/Lethal; or Fire) and get its Resistance to 90% and its Defense to 45%. Alternatively; pick lots of high-DPA AoE attacks; load them up with Procs; then use temp powers and inspirations to keep yourself upright whilst you slaughter everything much faster. Rad Melee unfortunately does not overly lend itself to this type of play... but Radiation Armor does. I'd recommend proccing the crap out of Ground Zero and Radiation Therapy at a bare minimum, swapping to Mu Mastery (for Electrifying Fences and Ball Lightning - procbomb both of them!) and taking T4 Incarnates that help (e.g. Void Radial Judgement, Barrier Destiny; Reactive Radial Interface, Assault Radial Hybrid; Banished Pantheon Radial Lore; and either Musculature, Vigor or Nerve Alpha).

AFAIK the way it functions currently is that a target affected by Shifting Tides can get that Cold Damage triggered on them once every 0.1 seconds. And every single attack made by all entities attacking that target will trigger a separate opportunity for this damage to activate. So "the more things attacking and the more attacks being made, the better". That cold damage is affected by damage boosts (like slotting damage enhancement aspect into Shifting Tides, and any buffs like Red Insps and Tide Pool and Fulcrum Shift) and -resistance debuffs (Whitecap, Brine, -res IO procs)... but the Shifting Tide power itself counts as a wide radius toggle for the purposes of proc IOs; so slotting damage procs into it will have very little benefit. Go with capped ED damage instead. [Edit: pipped to the post by @Auroxis who summed it up better anyway!]