Maelwys

Expand the posts, right-click the build link and pick "Save as". It'll save it down as a *.mxd file (which is an older filetype but Mids Reborn is still able to open). You may need to tell your browser it's safe to download and/or to "keep". Alternatively, just open these (I did the above and resaved the two posted builds as *.mbd files): mids_build (Brute).mbd mids_build (Tank).mbd Worth pointing out that neither of these builds are defense-softcapped with one foe in range of Invincibility; nor do they have perma Dull Pain. Both of which for me are essential on an INV. Compare those numbers to an all-rounder INV/SS Tanker I have in my character stable (add another 6.7%-13.4% res to all via SMoT Procs): zTanker - INV_SS (CrossPunch).mbd Incarnate clickies can make things silly. Melee Core Embodiment will cap them to all but Toxic and bring their regeneration to a hair under 100HP/Sec.

Sure, all badgers are a little crazy; but that just sounds relentlessly masochistic...

For sheer damage output I highly suspect Plant has the edge. The additional damage from Shifting Tides skyrockets the more allies you have due to its rising tide effect. Not sure if intangible Phantom Army count but Creeper Vines definitely do. And so does Audrey. And maybe Confused Enemies... (haven't tested that personally!) (Also: try throwing a Gaussian "Chance for Build Up" proc into Shifting Tides with lots of pets wailing on your target and see what happens... 😇 ) The other thing Marine is really good at is adding to pet survivability. It can hardcap Stoney's resistances to everything and cap their MaxHP and shove quite a bit of +Defense and +Absorb their way. Similar deal for Singy. And it might even allow Fire Imps to hang around long enough to matter 😜

Super Sponger? Dynamic Deadbeat? Mega Moocher?

Interesting take on the comparison format. My money is on the Controllers, especially if you're running with teams of randos at x8 on powersets like Plant and Arsenal which have hefty AOE CC and damage. My take on the debate (is it still a thing these days?) is that Defenders are usually more valuable to an optimized team and Controllers more valuable to an unoptimized one. Defender's greater -Res Debuff strength plus low animation time attacks (which can often produce decent DPA via Procs) makes things faster. Controller's range of CC lockdown effects (and the occasional immortal tanky pets) makes things safer. The only buff/debuff sets that IMO always work better on a Controller are Kinetics (as getting the team to the damage cap generally takes 2x Fulcrum Shifts regardless of the AT) and Dark (because Affinity is just plain better than Miasma). Whilst there's also an argument to be made that AoE immobilizes are required to keep things in Debuff patches and/or clumped for AoE attacks, IMO as long as none of your powers have KB effects and the team has a competent Tank or AoE -RunSpeed effects that's usually superfluous. And let's face it, on high end teams things just become a Steamrolling race, so hitting the same mob twice (to set up and then leverage Containment) hardly ever applies. All that said, I imagine Corruptors would like a word, as Scourge is a vastly more useful inherent for hardmode teaming than Vigilance 😜

IIRC Midnight Grasp > Smite > Siphon Life > Smite is the basic ST damage chain; but it needs a lot of recharge to get it seamless: +185% is needed for Smite; +117% for Siphon Life and +235% for Midnight Grasp (although MG can cope with +12.28% local Recharge% slotting before 3.5PPM procs start dropping below a 90% activation rate). If you have less recharge than that then you'll need to swap in other powers and/or Epic Blasts (Gloom is still very good).

FWIW, I found this summary by Carnifax from a few years ago regarding testing Damage Procs in Volcanic Gasses. The TL;DR is that Hold Procs are worth it providing the spot you place VG contains a decent number of mobs for a good portion of the 60s duration. (The fact that its effect keeps reapplying and can affect NEW mobs is another reason that I consider it to be one of the only AoE holds worth a spit!) Also I prodded at my previous build a smidge to give better AoE damage output: zController - Earth - Marine.mbd Swap Stalagmite slotting around depending on whether you lean towards damage or global recharge + disorient duration. (although as before; the only things that see much benefit from containment will be Fossilize and Poisonous Ray unless you swap Epics to Earth or Ice for more damage but less -res)

Earth is still a very solid set. Stone Cages + Stalagmites and Earthquake + Quicksand give you a lot of AoE CC ability. Adding Tidepool and Whitecap from Marine almost gets ridiculous. Volcanic Gasses is one of the better AoE holds (IMO most are trash) because it's coded very strangely - instead of one long-duration effect or a single pseudopet; it spawns several pseudopets over a 50s duration, most of which apply a Hold effect rather than damage (the only one that deals direct damage or inherits damage enhancements is the initial Pets_Volcanicgas pseudopet). So it procs a little better than most pseudopet powers... especially with procs from Hold Sets... but I'd still not rely on it as a regular source of AoE damage output. The Pet benefits greatly from Toroidal Bubble - throw the two +10% Pet Damage Resistance globals into the mix and they can reach the 90% hardcap to everything. Alongside the +MaxHP and healing they become very solid and can comfortably tank most tough single-targets (AVs/GMs/etc) in the game. Don't bother with a KB>KD proc (its Hurl already inflicts KD). Soulbound is OK if you can spare the slots for it, but keeping Shifting Tides up will be more important. Last I poked at an Earth/Marine (back in July from the looks of it) I came up with the below, although I've not personally played it except on Brainstorm. You could easily move a slot from Brine to Animate Stone for the Soulbound proc: zController - Earth - Marine.mbd Assuming you're keeping Barrier up it'll have Softcapped S/L Defense and hardcapped Fire/Cold Resistance; plus a <68s cycle on Power of the Depths. It's also worth pointing out that /Marine is one of the few Controller builds that I'd try to take a patron pet on (and possibly veer towards Core instead of Radial Lore!) since both Shifting Tides and PoTD play so nicely with them; and you can shore up their mitigation drastically (Barrier Reef + Maneuvers + Aura IOs is ~27.7% Def to all; throw in Barrier Destiny and/or Support Hybrid and that's softcap territory. Toroidal Bubble + Aura IOs = ~40% Res to all; on top of Barrier and any inherent resistances like Stony's. Then there's the +MaxHP from PoTD and all the Healing/Regeneration...)

The additional damage is, yes. I'm guessing what I was thinking of was set bonuses, so have edited appropriately... but I'll chalk that one up to toddler-related sleep deprivation. Apologies!

THIS. (Also the whole actually being able to shoot things from >60ft away thing) Whilst the OP has a history of ignoring Secondary Powersets, Blasters Secondary Powersets are a defining part of the AT. There is a very good reason that "Blappers" became so popular many years ago (even prior to being able to softcap S/L defense via IOs!). I'd even argue that ignoring a Blaster's Secondary is like ignoring a Defender's Primary. Looking at the offensive blast powersets in isolation across multiple ATs simply does not work unless you're purposely trying to compare apples to zebra crossings 🙈 🙉

Sorry, but why does Fury affect Brimstone Procs. Fury is damage only, right? Not ToHit? Brimstone Armor grants you a passive ability which has an 80% chance to add extra fire damage to each of your attacks. This extra damage is unaffected by most damage buffs... but it IS affected by Fury. (compare the Tanker version with the Brute version and note the extra "* (0.01 * source>kRage + 1)" bit of the formula!)

For "learning the ropes" I'd definitely recommend a melee AT (Brute, Tank or Scrapper - and Sentinel kinda counts too!). Not having to worry about mez protection (getting held/slept/stunned/whatever) is a huge weight off a newbie's shoulders. And of those ATs... I'd probably lean towards a Brute for the easiest levelling process if I'm honest. Brute's "Fury" inherent makes you not have to overly worry about slotting your attacks for damage enhancement - so you can comfortably start off with 1-2 Accuracy and 1-2 Endurance Reduction Single Origin or Basic Crafted Invention enhancements. And Brutes also get access to Energy Aura; which is once of the best all-rounder defensive sets. (Some offensive powersets get additional healing or defensive buffs - such as Dark Melee, Broadsword and Martial Arts - and might make a particularly effective pairing with /EA for a "SOs-only" or lower-end IO build) However whilst Brutes will be able to cruise through most content; they're not typically the best pick for soloing Archvillians or Giant Monsters (as beating their regeneration rate needs lots of damage output or debuffs... and whilst some Brutes can technically reach the required thresholds it'll be tough for your first toon to do that without buying and spamming loads of -regeneration temporary powers!) so if soloing AVs/GMs is important to you then I'd go for a Bots/Traps Mastermind instead.

I realise this is a bit of a necro; but since I was gonna post the attached build somewhere anyway I figured this thread was still recent-enough that it might benefit the OP... Controller - Illusion - Time (PwrBoost).mbd It's an Illu/time with Sorcery. It mainly takes it for Arcane Bolt, although picking up RoP and Spirit Ward (useful to stack on Phantasm when soloing) is a nice side effect. Super Speed as the main travel power is part of my own toon's theme - it could easily be swapped to Mystic Flight (or anything else since there's a pool pick free). Anyways. The main focus of this build is "team support"; so it has Perma PA and Perma Chrono Shift and Perma Farsight (and Perma Hasten) obviously. But its party piece is that it can grant all its teammates a very hefty permanent +40.26% Defense to all (via combining Power Boost + Radial Clarion with Farsight + Group Invisibility) plus a good chunk of -ToHit debuff (via Time's Juncture: -25.88% before Purple Patch etc) which means even allies (and pets!) that have zero inherent defense end up effectively softcapped. Whilst Group Invisibility is commonly considered a skippable power in Illusion... unlike Superior Invisibility the effects of GI are coded as a long-duration clickybuff, meaning that it stacks nicely with short-duration +Strength% buffs like Power Boost. And a lot of GI's component effects (including a decent chunk of the +Defense and all of the -StealthRadius and -ThreatLevel) do not cancel or suppress whenever you attack or are attacked. Therefore everyone affected by GI will get lots of defense and full invisibility and they will also attract less attention from hostile NPCs even if/when they do decide to attack something or click a glowie. Whilst it's not huge on -regen or -res, Slowed Response and Time Crawl are better than nothing. And swapping Lores can get you some meatier debuffs on demand.

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=tanker_melee.martial_arts.storm_kick&at=tanker

Robotics has the benefit of being able to grant ~21% Defence to all the pets and the MM themselves via Protector Bot Bubbles; so if you leverage Maneuvers (~4%) and both Pet Auras (10%) then you can get them well within Incarnate-clicky distance of the Softcap (Barrier Core Destiny and/or Talons Radial Lore and/or Support Core Hybrid) regardless of your secondary powerset. Their inherent damage resistances are alright (with Lethal and Psychic are both being pretty common in Lv50 content; Cold less so) so Wild Growth adding another ~18% doesn't hurt, but Maintenance Drone isn't needed if you have Regrowth. Their AI is generally very well behaved. Decent AoE damage output, but since Nature doesn't inflict -movement or much AoE CC you're going to need an AoE immobilize from your Patron/Epic pools to keep things inside the Assbot's Missile Burn Patches. For AV-soloing the -Regen from the personal MM attacks will come in handy given Spore Cloud is a little anemic in that Dept. Necro are vastly better at single-target damage than Bots/; but behind in AoE. A Necro/Nature will struggle more than a Bot/Nature at AV soloing due to less -Regen. Resistance spread is a smidge better than Bots, with Smashing/Psionic/Toxic all being prevalent at Lv50; and Cold/Negative less so. Necro output substantial -ToHit debuffs which will be more impactful if you're fighting even-level mooks than higher-level enemies or AVs due to purple patch and AV Resistance. Their AI is crazy and they take a lot of leashing. Demons are decent all-rounders and their inherent resistances and the Ember Demon Bubble buff meshes very nicely with Wild Growth. Unfortunately as a powerset Demons hasn't experienced the same revamp as Mercs, Necro and Bots so it's a little behind mechanically. But the personal attacks inflicting -resistance is always going to be useful. If you don't care about +Defence or -ToHit (or have other means of granting it) then they're probably the best of the three. Their AI is not quite as mad as Necro, but they'll sometimes still need a little bit of micromanaging to get them to do what you want. In Short: + Robots = #1 for AoE damage, #3 for ST. Highest +Defense. -Regen debuffs for AVs. + Necro = #1 for ST damage, #3 for AoE. High -ToHit (less impactful vs higher level enemies and AVs). Decent CC. + Demons = #2 for ST damage, #2 for AoE. Highest +Resistance. -Res buffs for AVs. Personally I'd go Robots or Demons. Robots if you're mainly solo; Demons if you're intending to team regularly.

The build has proven to be pretty much what I expected. It can solo EBs and AVs without much difficulty; which is always a good sign. However whilst all the ToHit debuffs are definitely useful solo; they're mostly wasted whenever I'm on a team (except on Hardmode Content whenever there aren't any other allied +Def buffs in play... which is almost never!) so I'm currently leaning towards rerolling it as Elec or Water Blast and/or just swapping it as-is to a Corr. The build already has 5x LoTG +7.5 Rechs; so Vengeance isn't needed as an IO mule. And unfortunately it likely wouldn't see much use as a clickybuff because any allies will be (well over!) Softcapped and MaxHP-capped and getting regular Absorb + AoE Heal ATO Procs spammed on them... with one lucky so-and-so even getting permanently Spirit Warded. So it'll be a very uncommon occurrence on this toon for any teammates to Faceplant. Tactics is currently granting an constant PBAoE +15.38% ToHit (which is directly contributing to this toon's Moonbeam damage) plus Mag 6.4 Confuse protection and a decent amount of +Perception; all without requiring teammate death. Unfortunately I very much doubt that swapping that for a situational 120s duration +35% Damage and +35% ToHit plus some Repel/Fear Protection and a normally-superfluous extra +25% Defense would be worth it... and I'd also likely need to stick a Rectified Reticle in Vengeance's base slot in order to maintain any visibility of stealthed critters.

AFAIK this was the main one, at least prior to i25. There was/is a behaviour setting within the AI that corresponds to "Fight then Run" and makes any creature it's assigned to engage in combat normally at long as their current HP is higher than a certain value (default is 30%) but if their current HP drops below that value then they start trying to flee. There is also another oddity called "Grief Mode" which can kick in depending on current HP (default is 70%) and has a start and end time (defaults = 10 secs and 30 secs). Under the hood, there are many variables that the AI holds separately for each NPC entity. Generally if something has a high "fear" value but a low "confidence" and "loyalty" value then it'll try and flee. However those values can move up and down in realtime by things such as getting attacked or having your allies get attacked. And they can be overridden entirely via getting affected by the 'Afraid' mez effect or being Taunted. Specific mob types are tweaked so that they *NEVER* feel fear and/or are always confident; such as Banished Pantheon and Zombies and Inanimate Objects. So the short answer is "it's complicated"... however as far as I can tell in general the typical breakpoints that an NPC will start trying to run away at if they think things aren't going well are "after 10 seconds of being engaged in combat if below 70% HP" and "if under 30% HP".

It was the first upgrade (Equip Robot) that used to be skipped on both the Assault Bot and Battle Drones. But that's old news. Don't do this any more. They buffed the Assbot's (previously AWFUL) Flamethrower attack that gets granted via Equip Robot in Issue 27 Page 5. Also Equip Robot is now what gives all your 'bots their Damage Resistance - so you're far better off using it on all of your henchmen. One other thing worth noting is that whereas previously all three Robotics henchmen types inflicted knockback (which was counterproductive to you trying to keep stuff in your Burn Missile Patches; and the main reason why the first upgrade used to get skipped on Battle Drones) nowadays the only henchmen ability that deals knockBACK instead of knockDOWN is the Assault Bot's regular Swarm Missiles (which has a 40% chance to inflict Mag 6 KB). This means you only really need to stick a KB->KD IO in it (the Overwhelming Force unique is best if you're not using it elsewhere); but not in the Drones or Protector Bots. The Battle Drones' Single Target attacks do however inflict a fair bit of Knockdown and so they really benefit from slotting an "Explosive Strike" Damage Proc. The Assbot's AOE attacks will also benefit somewhat from slotting that same Damage Proc; however don't bother with sticking one in the Protector Bots. (Also; "Repair" became "Maintenance Drone" and is now worth taking, particularly if your secondary doesn't have a heal. And they moved the -Regen debuff out of the Assault Bot Henchmen's attacks and into the MM's own Pulse Rifle Blast, Pulse Rifle Burst, and Photon Grenade Blast attacks. And unfortunately they also gutted Incendiary Swarm Missiles' Burn Patches so they now only hit a maximum of 3 targets - Bots are still good at AoE damage; but they can't melt entire maps anywhere near as fast as they used to... the tradeoff is greatly increased survivability due to the new Maintenance Drone; Equip Robot becoming slottable for +Resistance; and Protector Bot bubbles becoming AoE!)

FWIW I managed to grab 20mins earlier and did a few very quick + dirty RWZ pylon tests with a bunch of procs and enhancement unslotters. Long story short, it looks like @tidge is correct here and the Hold and Targeted AoE damage set Procs are indeed actually using the recharge of the parent power. So you can ED cap Liquefy's recharge and these procs will still get a capped 90% to activate once on initial casting. Procs from the -ToHit and -Def sets are definitely getting a lesser chance to activate on casting; but it's repeating as expected every 10s thereafter for 3 opportunities total (the predicted 15.3% pseudopet chance seems about right for these procs; so that's what I'm going with!). Whilst personally I'd still recommend ED-capping Liquefy's Recharge and -ToHit over loading it up with damage procs; if you've no other source of AoE damage then procbombing it with Hold and TAoE sets is technically a viable option. [6-slotted with 6x Damage Procs from TAoE and Hold sets] [6-slotted with 2x Lv50+5 Rech IOs and 3x Damage Procs from -Def and -ToHit sets, plus an Achilles' Heel] (I also did 10 more tests with a mix of 3x Hold and 3x -ToHit/-Def Damage procs - it was rare that any of the Hold procs failed to kick in on casting; but there were only seven instances where one of the other procs kicked in on casting... which is much closer to the predicted 15.3% pseudopet proc chance than it is to a capped 90% proc rate!)

The best chance you'll have of keeping them alive long enough to matter will be if you take the Soul Mastery pet (17.5% to Melee positional Def) or the Ice Mastery pet (25%+ to all typed Def except Toxic) and you happen to possess a Shield Defense secondary with a decently slotted Grant Cover (~13.5% when ED capped for +Def). The two +5% Pet Def Aura IOs and Barrier can then get the pets to softcap. However that's a fair bit of investment and IMO the additional damage contribution from the pet themselves hardly justifies it. They're also difficult to control and prone to running out of endurance even if you can keep them upright. So personally I'd skip them and just go with a BP Radial Lore pet and/or some signature summons instead.

IIRC because those effects live under Liquefy.Shock rather than under Liquefy itself and the parent Liquefy power is executing Liquefy.Shock as a "new power" (rather than redirecting to it like what happens in many other pseudopet abilities) any Targeted AoE or Hold Procs end up getting based off the listed base Recharge Time of that new Liquefy.Shock power (10s) rather than that of the parent Liquefy (150s). Meaning that they would get exactly the same initial 15.30% chance to activate as the -ToHit and -Defence debuff procs (assuming enough +accuracy or -defense to cap the hit rate of all the procs equally). However because that new Liquefy.Shock power is also flagged as inheriting Recharge Reduction enhancements, the internal "local recharge" of that new power can drop; which in turn lowers the proc rate of those Targeted AoE or Hold Procs... and since the lingering Liquefy.Liquefy pseudopet only inherits ToHit debuff and Defense debuff enhancements, those other types unfortunately won't get any additional opportunities to activate after that first initial tick. However I could well be misremembering things; as it's been a while since I poked at it (my Corruptor isn't exactly as hurting for AoEs as some Controllers might be; the only proc they've ever used in it is an Achilles' Heel!) and unfortunately I won't have the chance to hop on Brainstorm until the middle of next week. -ToHit/-Def procs in the Pseudopet should definitely be getting a 15.30% chance to apply on cast and every 10s thereafter (e.g. 3 opportunities total; per proc) though. [EDIT: Testing shows that the Hold and Targeted AoE damage set Procs are actually using the recharge of the parent power, not the pseudopet. So you can ED cap Liquefy's recharge and these procs will still get a capped 90% to activate once on initial casting. Procs from the -ToHit and -Def sets get 15.3% chance to activate on casting and every 10s thereafter, for 3 opportunities total. Whilst personally I'd still recommend ED-capping its Recharge and -ToHit over damage procs; if you've no other source of AoE damage then procbombing it with Hold and TAoE sets is technically a viable option]