Maelwys

To be fair, Seeds of Confusion has the same base duration as Mass Confusion but it's faster casting and up four times as often. And Plant Control gets multiple "proper" pets too. The downside is that going Plant/ will likely show up any of your other 7 Controller Teammates who are NOT going Plant/... 😜

Bio Armor can't hit the Resistance and Defense prereqs to AFK farm without heavy investment; particularly on a Brute that's using Offensive Adaptation. It also doesn't get any additional Global +Recharge, which is rather important for an AFK Farmer that only uses one big cycling AoE attack. IMO the most straightforward Brute to AFK Farm with (assuming you're dead-set on being masochistic enough to choose that AT!) is a non-Granite /Stone. Rooted provides twice as much passive regeneration as Inexhaustible; Minerals gives +Recharge; and Brimstone Armor additional damage procs get buffed by Fury. Getting Fire Resistance hardcapped + Fire Defense softcapped also takes far less work than on a Bio - after Brimstone Armor and the four +Def/+Res Globals; all you need is a few 3-piece Aegis and 6-piece Winter sets plus Weave and you're set. The Primary is less set in stone: RadMelee is pretty decent due to Irradiated Ground plus the procability of Atom Smasher, but there's also something to be said for Footstomp or Axe Cyclone with a Force Feedback +Rech Proc. If you're after ACTIVE farming then that's a whole different teapot of trout; since the main goal there is MAXIMUM AOE DAMAGE rather than sufficient mitigation to withstand the whole map attacking you indefinitely plus one procbombed attack and a few measly auras.

Illusion Primary (as long as you have Perma PA) is probably the best way to go; but Plant (Carrion Creeper spam) is another option. Epicwise Leviathan/Mace/Mu/Soul Mastery each get a pet. And if you're building for Perma-PA then it'll be easy enough to get those perma too. Mace Mastery gets a spammable -res power that can also slot the Achilles' Heel Proc for even more -res (PhantomArmy love -res. And the Soulbound Proc). For the Secondary, likely Darkness/Electrical/Marine Affinity/Traps as each of those get another pet. Maybe Storm. I suspect Marine or Darkness will be the better performing options there for pet buffage... but unfortunately I don't believe Rising Tide's bonus damage works on "untouchable" pets like Phantom Army and the Banished Pantheon buffing Lore pet. So I'd lean towards Dark Affinity. Plus if you're already going for Perma PA and a Perma-Patron pet then attaining perma-Fade too is gonna be child's play... 🙂 A Illusion/Dark/Mace (for example) should be very decent. Not huge in terms of AoE damage; but you'll have other allies (and pets!) for that. Spam procbombed Poisonous Ray and Tar Patch for lots of -res goodness. Between the Pet Aura IOs, Maneuvers and Fade/Shadowfall/DarkestNight your non-untouchable pets should end up softcapped (and Twilight Grasp + Dark Absorption should keep them healthy!). Your controller themselves will likely also end up softcapped to S/L/E. And your non-NPC teammates will love all the buffs/debuffs you're carrying. Incarnatewise normally I'd recommend Talons Radial Lore for pet-focused builds; but their buffs won't help your untouchable PA so I'd aim for Banished Pantheon Radial Lore instead. Barrier Destiny shouldn't be needed with all that -ToHit and +Def; and Ageless likely won't be required either due to Soul Absorption, leaving Clarion available for AoE Mez protection (and a mini-power-boost option if you go Radial instead of Core). If being a single-target-focussed Illusion/Dark/Mace doesn't tickle your fancy then an AoE-focussed Plant/Dark/Leviathan (Water Spout!) would be my second choice.

For AFK farming you need four things: A PBAoE attack set to Auto; plus ideally 1-2 damage auras. 90% Damage Resistance to Fire (or Smashing/Lethal) 45% Defense to Fire (or Smashing/Lethal) At least ~35HP/Second Regeneration The more regeneration and maximum HP you have, the less likely you'll die to a string of unlucky hits. My RadM/Stone Brute with 40HP/Sec passive regeneration (before Earth's Embrace) still dies occasionally. Firey Aura Brutes find it extremely difficult to reach the required Regeneration threshold. If you're prepared to stay at the keyboard and manually activate Healing Flames then they do OK, but I would definitely not recommend them for an AFK farmer in the current climate. Never mind that there are much better PBAoEs to put on auto than Burn.

Tanker. Check the link @TygerDarkstorm posted for builds and maps. /Thread (Srsly this comes up every few days. Tankers will always be more effective than Brutes at AE farming because of their larger AOEs that hit more targets; and because building to a sufficiently high level of survivability to farm the maps in question takes less effort on a Tanker and so leaves more wiggle room in the build to buff damage output via procs and set bonuses and extra attacks. That's not to say Spines/Fire Brutes can't farm. They can. They'll just be a bit slower at it than an optimized Tanker)

Funsies?

Superstrength/ Brute. Proc that baby up and add Fury and Rage. Also DO NOT FORGET to take Boxing, Kick, and Cross Punch (merely having each of them buffs Brawl a bit; you don't need to activate them)

Yep. Like this one: Now, Ston's data is to be taken with a big grain of salt because they proc out the attacks and mix a lot of Epic Pool powers in (Gloom + Dark Obliteration/Zapp + Ball Lightning); but you can still observe how Staff's Pylon (ST damage) position is best on a Stalker and its Trapdoor position (mix of ST and AoE damage) is best on a Tanker. I don't believe there have been (m)any comparative tests done purely on AoE damage output in a saturated horde of mobs (e.g. AE farming or ITFs). However my own experience is that Staff Fighting is actually pretty damn good in that dept on a Tanker because the AoE damage potential of the set gets drastically increased by Gauntlet (unlike other powersets which have fewer AoEs and/or don't get the full benefit of both the radius AND target cap buffs)... and the +Defence buffs and -Resistance debuffs that get thrown out whilst it's spamming its AoEs certainly don't hurt. As a very very rough example: my Bio/Staff Tanker regularly runs America's Angel's S/L damage Meteor Farm Map solo on +4x8. They complete that map comfortably in well under 5mins with no epic powers taken at all and with their healthbar hardly budging; despite the below base stats (note the poor Melee/S/L Defense and only 75% resistances; this becomes Softcapped + Hardcapped whenever they actually start actually spamming attacks!) So I actually consider Staff to be one of the better performing Tanker melee sets, providing you're playing on +Nx8 and not constantly soloing pylons.

Looks like this differs depending on the model gender and size - the character model I've been using never grasps the "unwrapped" bit. The staff of Stheno looks particularly ridiculous; even if it's a shorter weapon model than the rest... Anyways; the discrepancy ought to be easy to rectify by stretching the weapon model a bit - see some of the currently "pointy at both ends" albeit asymmetrical options: In this case whilst the male model is holding it closer to their chest; the female model still has their hand firmly on the central shaft (stop giggling, you at the back!) This can be seen more clearly during the extend/retract stage of the thrust (I said STOP IT!) To me it still looks like there's nothing wrong with the pose itself, only the points at which the model's hands are making contact with the weapon; which AFAIK is quite tweakable. It also ought to be possible to extend the "left" portion of the staff here a bit too (although admittedly there may be a bit of a balancing act between that and not accidentally cutting off their own feet during a Guarded Spin!)

If you take the second screenshot in my post further up as a reference point, at no stage in any of the attack animations do either of the character's hands touch the staff outside of the "wrapped" middle area. The Ranged attack (Serpent's Reach) does involve them holding the staff pretty close to their body then letting go with their "offhand" as they extend it out... but they're still grasping it in the middle with their main hand. Actually even on a huge model body the edges of the Staff never actually make contact with the head or torso, the worst that might happen is a bit of "clipping" with bulkier costume pieces and capes. So IMO there's actually a good bit of wiggle room for variants that are "sharp at both ends"... 🔦⚔️😉

I hear this complaint from time to time, and I’m guessing it’s about number crunching? On a Scrapper and a Brute, Staff Fighting suffers from particularly poor Damage Per Activation (the animation time of the attacks takes too long for the damage they deal!) The powerset as a whole has lower damage potential than (most) other sets; which rubs a lot of people the wrong way. However it also has greater utility than (most) other sets... because it buffs both Defence and Resistance, has an AoE Resistance debuff and gets a Ranged attack. It's "better" on a Stalker, because they get Build Up and Assassin's Strike which shores up their Single Target damage considerably... and it also gets an automatic built-in copy of Perfection of Body (almost always the best stance) rather than you having to "waste" a power pick on Staff Mastery. Also on a Tanker; the Gauntlet inherent shores up their AoE damage considerably (Eye of the Storm rises from 10ft+10 Targets to 15ft+16 targets; and both Innocuous Strikes and Guarded Spin drastically increase their Cone width and double their Target Caps) so it's actually pretty decent there assuming your goal is AoE woodchippering.

Wait till someone links a youtube video about the /ah slash command. And the Mission Teleporter/Team Transporter. And Assemble the Team. And the Ouroboros Portal. Oh Rularuu, the possibilities... We're not exactly still stuck with 2004-era travel options.

IMO Staff's fine performancewise on Stalkers and Tankers, and the Utility of self-buffing both Resistance and Defense makes it passable on Brutes too. But if they're prepared to speed up the animations I'm not gonna say no 😉 In terms of the weapon model options though? Yeah 100% agreed. A lot of the existing ones aren't even symmetrical which really grates on my OCD... I'm essentially left with a choice between a bandaged twig or a double sided Q-tip. [EDIT] - FWIW I just checked the Wiki's page on Staff Weapon Customization and it's only got 9 out of the possible 21 options listed; so some folk may be mistaken about the current range of options. There are a few good ones; but unfortunately only two which are symmetrical (other than the standard 'plain bland narrow cylinder' in various levels of shininess) - "Studded" and "Wrapped". I'm not expecting fully animated Staffchucks here; but would a Darth-Maul-esque double sided lightstick really be too much to ask for? 😜

I said the Teleport Pool, not Fold Space. Fold Space is so situational that it's a firm skip on most characters. Combat teleport on the other hand is extremely useful for Melee toons in a world of jagged polygons and "prefer ranged" AI. No lag time for group-hopping carnage.

Presumably Lulz. (besides, everyone KNOWS the best there is is a Claws/Regen Scrapper...) 😄 If we're just posting some "most generically useful" builds, then we'd need to point at stuff like Ice/Cold Corruptors; Tankers with the Teleport Pool; and a Nature Affinity anything.

Taking the Tanker version at CoDv2: + The top entry (green semicircle icon with the two red and blue dots) is the "fallback" which is what you'll see displayed in the game stats window. + The bottom entry (the red eye-with-a-line-through-it icon) is "hidden in in-game info" and what actually handles the newly added varying damage behaviour. Looking at that bottom entry, it seems that the base damage of LBE is now getting multiplied by a random number (as the ToHitRolls are randomized between 0 and 100) which means that it can vary wildly... however that variation is getting reigned in the more ToHit buffs you have active. Essentially the LOWER this random ToHitRoll is; and the HIGHER your ToHitBonus is; the more damage you'll do. Technically the Player ToHit buff limit is 200.35% at level 50. However whenever you actually make an attack, your ToHit roll is usually capped at 0.95 against whatever foe you're attacking (e.g. you can never buff yourself enough to make an attack autohit, there'll always be at least a 5% chance of an 'unlucky' miss). It's not immediately obvious if this new LBE damage calculation is using the capped ToHitRoll or the uncapped ToHit buff value; but a quick bit of in-game testing suggests that it's using the capped one (since when using an entire tray of Yellow inspirations I was seeing very consistent damage being dealt by LBE. Had it been using the uncapped value then the damage dealt would have varied wildly between 100% and 200% of the listed base damage!) So it seems that the maximum base damage LBE can deal will be the listed 52.83; and with a sufficiently high enough ToHit bonus (to cap the ToHit chance of LBE at 95% if it wasn't autohit) it'll do very close to that maximum even with a very low random ToHitRoll. Also FWIW, the changes are from Issue 27 Page 7's "New Epic / Ancillary Power Pools and Epic Balancing Pass" section:

Meh, I've always viewed Sents as a Melee AT. They're essentially Scrappers with a few feet extra reach. (I may have only noticed the subforum on this one after submitting the original reply... 😛)

Definitely Willpower and SR for pure "no need to touch it"; and of those two a well built SR has fewer holes and a much higher performance ceiling. Shield Defense is up there too providing you don't count Shield Charge. Stone Armor and INV are pretty straightforward too with their single self heal/MaxHP buff. Then Electric and Energy. Then Firey Aura. Then Ice Armor and Dark Armor and Rad Armor (which all rely on using regular well timed clickies). Then Regen (LOTs of clickies plus a yo-yo healthbar). Then finally Bio Armor (alive enemy clickies, dead enemy clickies, multiple stances and regular clickies).

Compare Power Transfer: to Panacea: Notice the "(self only)" tag on the top one; and "(all affected targets)" on the bottom one. The value of "Self" listed on the left of the CoDv2 screen against 'Entities Affected' simply dictates what the boost itself (e.g. the enhancement!) normally affects - so slotting the Panacea Proc IO itself does not automatically grant you an AoE Healing Aura. However the healing proc effect listed under standard effects is able to apply to ALL AFFECTED TARGETS of any power that it's slotted in. So ticking a Panacea Proc in Health? That just ticks on you. Sticking it in Arcane Ward? That ticks on your selected Target (and technically also once on you at the time of initial casting) Sticking it in Triage Beacon? That ticks on lots of allies.

Oh I'm sure it's grand at endgame for ST damage - but you've only two attacks before Lv28 and a single AoE (Wail). GFS requiring Melee jousting is also a bit dubious on a non-softcapped toon. (Ordinarilly I'm ambivalent about Shout, although it might make more sense on an Active set like Thermal... however I'm a big fan of Siren's Song; procbombed or otherwise!) Your Alpha Slot selection buffing +Res rather than damage; and taking both Thaw and the Rez makes your build present as more support orientated (which isn't a bad thing for a Defender, don't get me wrong!) than the IceSphere one (which to me looks a bit more like a Corruptor port). If I was to do up a build from scratch then it'd likely trend more towards yours; but with Siren's Song and possibly Aim. Neither of the builds have fleshed out their incarnate picks beyond Alpha... but I'd assume either Clarion Destiny or Melee Core Hybrid for Mez Protection purposes (and the Hybrids are typically better set to Assault or Support). Interface would be Reactive, obviously; and Lorewise I'd go BP Radial all the way. For Judgement I'm typically a fan of Void for the -Damage debuff; but Sonic already has a PBAoE nuke... so Pyro or Ion would give them a ranged Enemy Deletion button; and Vorpal would self-buff defense a bit if they're using the Destiny slot for Clarion over Barrier (and perhaps be fun to stack with Siren's Song). I had a quick dig through my own build folders and the only current-ish one I can find that's Homecoming-specced is a Bot/Thermal MM. Whilst I realise the OP isn't keen on MMs, it's worth pointing out that Bots/ makes it pretty easy to self-softcap Defense and get your pets most of the way there before incarnates (slotted Protector Bot Bubbles adding ~21% goes a long way) leaving plenty of room for pool/epic picks - zMastermind - Robotics - Thermal.mbd

FWIW there's another build on IceSphere's Dropbox: Build: Defender (Thermal Radiation - Sonic Attack).mbd The originator seems to have gone for Hardcapped S/L Resists and then Ranged Defence. Looks passable at a quick glance. It's a bit more offensive orientated than @Auroxis's one above. That D-Sync in Heat Exhaustion is likely to break your wallet; but thankfully there's a fair bit of wiggle room to adjust it + rejig a few other things: Mind Over Body can be dropped to 3 slots (Lv50+5 End/Res, Lv50+5 Res, Unique) confortably. Likewise Weave could drop a slot (lose the Def/End/Rech Shield Wall and then Boost the Def and Def/End to +5). The Eradication Proc in Wail could also be swapped to a Fury of the Gladiator -Res. And Forge could do with a Gaussian Proc (since there's no amplify) and the Travel power with the Winter's Gift unique...

I'd an Earth/Thermal Controller back on live that was pretty decent. The combination of the Thermal buffs, Pet +Res aura IOs and Stoney's own inherent resistances meant the pet was at the Resistance cap to practically everything, and the Controller themselves could lock multiple spawns down simultaneously so they were extremely good at aggro control. I hardly ever experienced issues getting the debuffs to land, but Earth Control outputs a ridiculous amount of -def. The character brought considerable value to almost any team and was one of my preferred options for AV tanking. I suspect going either Dark Blast (ToHit debuffage) or Sonic Blast (Resistance debuffage) would be the optimal path on a Defender. However for damage output purposes... the Thermal powerset is very busy (especially if you're keeping up a consistent Forge and Thaw rotation plus "main healing") so there might be a benefit to veering towards something like Fire or Ice instead... and having one or two very effective offensive abilities instead of lots of mediocre ones which together make up a high DPS attack chain.

This. The Performance Shifter Proc gets multiple separate opportunities to activate (on you the caster) simultaneously whenever you hit multiple hostile targets with a single ability, so you can end up recieving lots of +endurance if you use it in an AoE. It also gets a chance to activate on each target as well (providing they count as "friendly"). However the source entity using the proc must be a player instead of a pet/pseudopet. Power Transfer gets multiple checks but only a single opportunity to actually activate (on the caster, i.e. you) per ability per server tick. In fact it used to be that slotting multiple PT procs in different abilities didn't stack... but these days they do so you can have lots of copies across various +endurance passives/toggles/etc. ok. It does not normally work for pets/pseudopets (unless they're using an ability that has a base area factor of 1 and also affects themselves, strangely...) Panacea gets multiple separate checks for each "friendly" target hit, but activates its buff on that target not on the caster. Notably neither the source nor the target needs to be a player, so friendly pets/pseudopets and NPCs are all fair game. There are also different rolls for the Heal and for the Endurance buff, meaning they kick in independently of each other. The rest activate for 120 seconds (on the caster) and multiple activations during that time window overwrite instead of stack.

I'll generally have my attacks on tray #1, toggles on tray #2 and clicky buffs and summons on tray #3. Certain characters will end up with more attacks and less toggles, so there can sometimes be a little overlap on tray #2 by level 50+incarnates... but the powers that I actually use most often (attacks and maybe a heal) always live on the first tray and are bound to both my keyboard number row and my dual shock joypad buttons. Everything else lives on the higher numbered trays, of which I'll usually only have tray 9 open constantly (vertical) with the various fast travel and teleportation buttons on it as well as a few more situational clicky powers (Secondary Mutation, Barrier Destiny, etc). Things like the Ouroboros portal and Mystic Fortune get bound directly to keys (e.g. O and M) and I make good use of my Numpad buttons (typically Numpad0 is a heal, the / * buttons are buffs/patch powers, Call to Justice and Assault Hybrid are - +, Lore Pet summoning is Numpad9, etc. and Numpad 1-8 are for teammate targeting). I generally play with my left hand on my joypad and my right hand flicks between mouse, keyboard and joypad. It might be a little unusual for MMORPGs, but I've always preferred controlling the movement of any on screen characters with a Joypad - and the mouse is a hold over from the old "circle strafing" FPS days. Left shoulder buttons handle Jumping and activating my main Travel Power. Left Analogue stick is for movement, with its button typically enabling either flight or superspeed/athletic run. DPad is for targeting and Combat Teleport, although I'll usually have a few of its buttons pulling double duty (eg DPad "Up" eats any inspirations in column #5 and triggers a Self Heal if they're all out, Dpad "down" targets the closest enemy and also activates Hasten). Right Analogue stick is looking around and interacting. The remaining eight buttons activate my main clicks - usually buttons 1-6 are attacks and the right shoulder buttons end up being Targeted or Positional AoEs. Mouse is for fine movement and a few extra clicky powers (especially Taunt on melee toons). Keyboard covers the rest, with the aforementioned Numpad binds seeing by far the most use.