Maelwys

I'm honestly not a fan of Sonic Blast ever since they redid its Resistance debuffing mechanics (changing it from straight -res debuffs to non-stacking "Vibration" sub powers). That said... if I was taking it, I'd probably pair it with Energy Manipulation. Boost Range will let your Shriek/Scream/Screech/Shout ST attacks inflict maximum -res debuffage at maximum range; and sticking Power Thrust on autofire can ensure you'll punt any potential huggers away from you. The sheer raw power of the melee Blapps will also allows you to take better advantage of all that -res to finish off tougher foes quickly should you ever choose to close into melee range. And all the Disorients also stack quite nicely with Screech. Energize is also one of the better sustain abilities; keeping both your Green and Blue Bar looking healthy without any need to melee; plus a decent level of Stun protection. [EDIT] Whilst I've not specifically tested Sonic DPA since the changes... Scream>Screech>Scream>Shout looks to technically have the lead in terms of raw DPA... but that will require a hefty +250% recharge in Scream, which is going to be very tricky to achieve solo whilst maximizing Proc opportunities. However using Shriek as a filler next to Screech will drop that requirement down to +168% recharge in Scream, which is is going to be a lot easier to hit and not much different in terms of raw base DPA [58.2197 vs 56.28322]. Both those chains will keep the maximum 1 copy of type 1 and 4 stacks of type 2 resistance debuffage going, for -28.6 res total.

If I had the time, I'd run MORE farms for them. Of course, the map matters. Do I use the one where they have to click on 200+ glowie fruit trees before the NPC informs them that they've successfully harvested today's quota of apples; or the one which has a great big open field and they have to run up and down it for 30 mins pretending they're a plough? Bonus points if they make brum-brum tractor noises whilst ploughing (and/or they bring a Marine Affinity or Earth Control toon- those crops aren't going to dig and water themselves...)

Gaussian Proc in Tactics gets a separate additional opportunity to activate for every additional entity that your Tactics is currently affecting. So if you're just affecting yourself? One opportunity to activate. Yourself and 8 pets? 9 opportunities to activate. When it activates its boost triggers on the owner of Tactics. In Enforcers? Well, each enforcer henchman is running a separate instance of Tactics. If the player and 5 other henchmen are around that's 7 opportunities for the proc to trigger on each of them, once every 10 seconds. Gaussian Proc is 1PPM and Tactics has a 30ft AoE. So the BASE chance of activation once every 10 seconds is only 6% (3.81% base, clamped at a minimum of 5+PPM=6%) Binomial Probability suggests that with 7 targets (6 Henchmen + MM) you'd have a 35.153% likelihood of at least one proc triggering on each Enforcer every 10 seconds.

Time is fantastic, although it needs Perma Powerboosted+Clarion'ed Farsight to really shine and it's been overtaken as the "S Tier" MM secondary by Marine. I think these days if I was to recommend a "do anything" MM it'd probably be /Marine. Primary largely doesn't matter with a good /Marine setup; but Ranged pets like Mercs and Bots tend to be much better behaved (Bots will be more survivable until you get Perma Serum; but Mercs will be better at anything other than AoE farming when twinked out at Lv50). However Demons/Marine is fantastic when twinked also if you can cope with the whole "herding overcaffinated kittens" thing... (might as well throw a few example builds up for the OP's benefit since I have them handy...) zMastermind - Mercs - Marine.mbd zMastermind - Demons - Marine.mbd

First toon I ever played redside was a Bot/Dark MM. I was not disappointed.

Agree with the bulk of Sovera's post, but to qualify this bit for the OP: There IS actually some benefit to being over the "90% hardcap". Resistance Debuffs. The way these work is that your Damage Resistance (including any you have over your AT's "resistance cap" limit) lowers the effectiveness of any incoming -Resistance debuffs. If you can reach 100% Resistance to a damage type then any -Resistance debuffs against it that are not flagged as "unresistable" will have zero effect on you. Whilst enemies with substantial amounts of Resistance Debuffs don't feature hugely often in most regular PVE content; this can still sometimes be worth factoring in. For this reason I'll often build my Tankers to try to reach (or get within spitting distance of) 90% S/L Res without the SMoT proc; or just keep Barrier and/or a few orange insps in my back pocket for emergencies.

@Zect's post above covered most of the bases, but to touch on this: If your yardstick of performance is AE farming, then most Brutes will perform worse than Tankers. + Tankers will deal more AoE damage in nearly every case (other than an AFK Fiery Aura + Spines build that leans on "Burn" and "Quills" and certain Brimstone Proc setups) + Tankers will find it far easier to hit the Defence and Resistance caps due to their higher base buff values and their +Res Proc ATO. + Tankers will have greater HP and Regeneration and Absorb numbers due to their Higher base HP and HP cap. That said, you can certainly make a Brute that can "tank" and do so well; and they'll generally still be a bit better at Single Target damage output than an equivalent Tanker even allowing for the additional build compromises (you are going to have to choose more powers and set bonuses that enhance your survivability than the equivalent Tanker). However you'll need to choose your goals carefully and not try to get everything all at once. 90% Res to 2+ types, plus >45% Defense to 1-2 types or a single positional? That's doable on many combos, throw in some on-demand heals/regen/absorb + you're good to go. 90% Res and >45% Def to everything? Not happening unless you leverage a very specific combo (like Storm Kick + Granite Form) and want a rather pointless one trick pony. Regarding Tankers... I will say that I've played an awful lot of tanking toons over the years and currently the one that I'll reach for 99% of the time is my Bio/Staff Tanker. Whilst they may not be resistance hardcapped to everything (although they'll comfortably reach it to S/L, are just a hair shy of it on Toxic and the rest can get there with a single orange insp from Luna) nor do they have any inherent Defense Debuff Resistance... they have so much Defense and Absorb and Regen that it rarely matters; and anything within 15ft of them gets absolutely blended. About the only things that can drop them are sufficiently high quantities of stacking autohit -MaxHP debuffs (and even then they've to cut through ~1875 Absorb) or sufficient incoming -Recharge debuffs to stop them activating their multiple clickyheals and Guarded Spin (despite their considerable recharge debuff resistance and FF +Recharge Procs). TL;DR: Don't build a full brick. Build half a brick, put it in a sock and WHACK things with it.

IceSphere's Dropbox has one sitting in it - Tanker (Stone Armor - Staff Fighting).mbd The closest I have personally played is a Bio Armor/Staff Tanker and a Rad Melee/Stone Armor Brute. That said, I've found that DDR very much tends not to an issue for my Bio/Staff Tanker given that they can "turtle up" and keep Guarded Spin double-stacked indefinitely. (admittedly it helps that the vast majority of -Defence inflicting attacks are either Lethal typed or Melee positional or both) I've posted their full in-game stats before here; but they tend to sit in Offensive Adaptation + Form of the Body Stances and use Guarded Spin in both their AoE and ST attack chain; keeping at least one stack up at all times. That puts them at the regular content Defense softcap to F/C/E/N and Melee, and not far off it to Lethal. In "Turtle Mode" with two stacks up they end up with a very comfortable Defense buffer before incarnates. Resistancewise they're hardcapped to S/L and not far off Toxic; plus about 50-55% to F/C/E/N/P with the ST chain going. Ablative Carapace is up every <30s granting ~1874 Absorb; Max HP sits at ~3220 and it's common to see HP regen well into the 200's (~230ish if I'm paying attention even in Offensive stance). So they're a pretty chonky brick. I wouldn't say it's a beginner-friendly build exactly; but it's not hugely expensive - mine's only got one HO and no Winter Sets (albeit 7 Purple IOs and the same number of ATOs). Tanker (Bio Armor - Staff) (CT + Taunt + SS).mbd

IMO Staff is a decent mixture of AOE damage and additional mitigation (+13.3% Damage Resistance from Form of the Body + Sky Splitter, plus 15% base +Melee/Lethal Defense from Guarded Spin that is enhanceable and can stack with itself). Whilst the DPA isn't quite top tier, its animations *feel* satisfying; and Gauntlet's Radius and Target Cap buffs end up working overtime on Guarded Spin, Innocuous Strikes and Eye of the Storm, meaning that on a Tanker the set can become a total woodchipper if it's procced out. However it also has a smidge of utility in the form of -Res debuffs (Form of the Body + Eye of the Storm, an Achilles Heel Proc in Mercurial Blow and a Fury of the Gladiator Proc in Eye of the Storm) and a Ranged attack (Serpent's Reach) plus lots of opportunities for Force Feedback +Recharge procs. Personally I find Staff to mesh best with Bio Armor, but I'm sure a Willpower or non-Granite Stone Tanker might also appreciate the mix of +Res and specific Defense buffs too...

It also fully restores your endurance bar, which can be very handy for certain endgame builds to avoid having to take Ageless Destiny. And it buffs your ToHit for a short time too. Full effect list here.

Psychic Shockwave and Mind Probe. (I mean, you are picking at least one of those up already in the rush to get + procbomb Dominate, right?) 😉 Also stuff like Power Drain too I guess, since we're talking about /EA. Personally I find jousting is fine for single target melee blapps, but PBAoEs like PSW become much easier to leverage if you don't have to orbit around your targets several times first like an overcaffinated sheepdog to "get them lined up just right". And phooey to taking Fold Space just for that purpose on a Sent'...

I mean... they're still less important than Buffs unless you're already at the limits (e.g. Hard Mode with a Pocket Kin + rotating T4 Destinys); due to Purple Patch and AV Resistances. At level 50 if you throw a debuff on a +4 AV it'll be suffering only 0.48*0.13= 6.24% of that debuff's listed effect. By all means use 'em if you've got 'em; and some specific debuffs like -Regen and -MaxHP are a big boon to lower-damage squads when it comes to chipping through big bags of HP... but I'd much rather have +Def than -ToHit (for example) even against trash mobs; and I doubt even Musk could pay me enough to play a /Poison MM.

Oldstyle Human form Peacebringer would probably be the closest analogue to Mar-Vell; plenty of Energy Blasts and nice meaty punchwallops with EnergyFX and knockback; plus inherent flight. Although in terms of performance it's not going to be setting any records. Energy/Energy Blaster is the other obvious option. Or even a Energy Blast + Forcefield Corruptor with the Energy Mastery Epic Pool. If you want to go for a full regular Melee AT (Tanker or Scrapper over Brute unless you can think of a way to make the Rage mechanic work with them thematically) then It'd likely be Energy Melee and Energy Aura plus some Epic and Pool ranged attacks. Epicwise the Soul and Mu Mastery pools both provide a few decent blasts which can be recolored to match "energy beams" so you're not completely restricted to Laser Beam Eyes and Energy Torrent. The Pool Power attacks "Wall of Force" and "Spirit Ward" are passable but might be tricker to appropriately reflavour.

It takes 1.188 seconds for Corrosive Enzymes to animate (exactly the same as a "Blaze") and it'll increase all damage output against a single foe by (best case) 18.75%. So you could make the argument that if Blaze is going to deal more than 18.75% of the target's health then use that instead. A Level 53 Boss has 2,689.60 HP. 18.75% of that is 504.3. ...so does your Blaze deal ~500 damage per hit? (According to CoDv2, Corruptor base damage for it is 135.3413 including the DoT...) Rule of Thumb? I'd throw it on Bosses if you're solo or the team isn't completely steamrolling; but anything lower don't bother. Spore Cloud however... that's an anchored AoE. No reason not to have it always up unless you're fighting total trash.

SR is more survivable against lower levels of incoming damage; because it gets more damage resistance as it's HP drops so as long as it doesn't get killed outright then it's more capable of "hanging on" at low HP. It also deals with Defense Debuffs better EA gets it's HP bar back to full much more quickly and IIRC is better vs things like Endurance/Recovery drains and MaxHP debuffs. There's not a huge amount in it but overall I'd give the survivability edge to SR; as long as Endurance Consumption isn't ever going to be an issue for you.

Without knowing the story, I can only assume that there was a grudge of some sort at play here? I can sort of picture a case where disgruntled partner/kid/whatever deletes someone's characters out of spite (and judging by the timeline... likely whilst they're on holiday or otherwise taking a break from the game?) then by the time they realize what's happened a number of those now-freed-up character names have been taken by other players. It's not unheard of in MMORPGS for RL drama to impact on someone's in-game account... but thankfully about the only thing I've personally observed in CoH was back on live when our Coalition had a few married couples who would play each others' characters and sometimes intentionally get them into a little bit of mischief "It's OK dear I was just helping you farm your debt/damage badges..."

Why not just treat Cross Punch as a Single Target attack and proc it up like this: You're missing that -res proc in the other attacks anyway; and it's even a gain in raw average damage over the previous slotting if you've already decided you don't need the Set Bonuses.

Grav/ for Wormhole + Dimensional Shift. And a Singularity slotted for MORE knockback (rather than KD>KB) /Storm for Hurricane, Tornado and Gale. I'm torn on the Epic Pool. Energy Mastery for Energy Torrent; Ice Mastery for Ice Storm, or Psionic Mastery for Psi Tornado... 🤔

Obligatory XKCD:

Procs are plenty reliable in the longer recharging powers. Taking Crane Kick as an example (10s recharge, 1.67s animation time), each 3.5PPM Proc will have a 68.075% chance to trigger and a 4.5PPM Proc will have a 87.525% chance. And the longer the recharge, the better the chances get.... once it breaches 90% you can even begin to slot some recharge% into the power itself without negatively affecting the activation chance. That said, personally most of my attacks end up with 1-3 procs due to the balancing act between chasing [raw damage potential] vs [set bonuses that grant additional Survivability and Global Recharge]. So it's typically only really the big hitting AOEs that actually end up being Procbombed. Exceptions certainly exist however- some stuff like Superstrength Rage is simply too good not to exploit (in Rage's case the additional +ToHit can completely negate the need for any native attack accuracy slotting). [EDIT] - Quick example from my BattleAxe/FA Brute: Pendulum and Cleave are chasing Set Bonuses to get the build to >90% S/L Resistance and >45% Melee Defense and enough Global Recharge to keep the chain going. However Axe Cyclone and Burn each have 4x Procs and ED-capped Damage (AC is rocking a few Utility Procs, whereas Burn is going all-in on Damage Procs). Guess which two AoEs provide the backbone of the toon's damage output?

Yes, Brute base damage scalar is puny. That's why the optimal slotting for most of their attacks is "as many Damage Procs as you can fit; plus enough accuracy to hit the thing". Some folk will go for 1-2 Acc/Dam HOs plus 4-5 procs; others for +Accuracy Set Bonuses plus Kismet and 6x Procs. Prior to total min/maxing I'd still opt for procs over damage (assuming that you don't need any recharge% to make a decent chain)... below numbers assume 80 Fury:

+1 for Energy Aura if the OP doesn't fancy going Super Reflexes. With enough Recharge, /EA can achieve Perma Energize and stick it on on Auto for constant +Regen and sizable Endurance Discount and a decent Heal every ~30s. /SR can stick Master Brawler on Auto for a smidge of Absorb every 30s. SR gets better DDR, Scaling Damage Resistance (take less damage as your HP drops) and Confuse Protection. EA gets +Regen, +Endurance Discount, a self-Heal and Repel Protection. Pick yer poison.

Tru(e) story.

The optimal Scrapper is whatever one you happen to be playing today. They're mostly* all hold-my-beer insane rampaging engines of destruction; they merely come in slightly different flavours. (*Except KinMelee/Regen. Because something has to be the lining the very bottom of the 200%-proof barrel of psychoactive moonshine...)