Maelwys

Not on a Scrapper, no. Regeneration on a SENTINEL is considerably better though. You can certainly IO-out Regen Scrappers, and if you pair them with a primary like Broadsword or Katana then you can get very decent levels of regeneration and resistance whilst hitting the "59%" Incarnate content defence softcap. But that level of performance has very little to do with your secondary powerset. Almost everything regeneration brings to the table, willpower can do better (hitting the scrapper maximum HP cap is a little easier on regen) - but hey, it's still thematic. Even if you'll never actually be "the best you are at what you do" (TM)... 😉

I've covered that already, no less than three times: I'm really not sure how many more ways I can put this. It's beginning to feel a bit like a certain scene from Red Dwarf... I'll try one last time: Because it would only grant an extremely minor theoretical average benefit over time, but in practice the build's endurance recovery would be become much less consistent/reliable. "PS Proc + PS EndMod" vs "Two regular +5 EndMod IOs" ---> In order for the PS proc to become the better option you'd need to always be sitting at under 90% Endurance, but never bottoming out. Therefore you'd have to continually carefully juggle the use of your powers in such a manner that you remain under 90% and above 0% endurance regardless of how often the PS proc actually kicks in. And that is highly impractical. No worries, likewise I'm not trying to argue, merely trying to explain the reasoning for my decision. The explanations I've given have all related to my earlier post where I listed five recovery slotting options. One of those options was slotting a second EndMod IO into Stamina. The build I posted currently has a second EndMod IO in Stamina. If you took that IO out and replaced it with a PS proc then you'd still be at least one enhancement slot short of the "ideal" (which is to have all the Healing uniques plus both a second EndMod IO AND a PS proc in Stamina). And therein lies the problem. Ordinarily I'd figure out a build's optimal attack chain and calculate its Endurance consumption, then build the character so that they meet that consumption plus a little extra for leeway. However it's very difficult to do this for a Crabbermind because the powers they use will vary wildly depending on the situation (buffs, AOE, ST). The most foolproof method would be to drop all the slots in Health and Stamina and just use Ageless instead of Barrier... but doing that negatively impacts your pets' survivability... so we're brought back to the original point that Crabbermind builds are ridiculously tight on enhancement slots and getting everything you could possibly want on them simultaneously is impossible. So the best solution I can come up with is to produce a build that ticks all the boxes for sufficient recharge, damage output and survivability... then try to get as much reliable endurance recovery as possible using the remaining enhancement slots.

Willpower. Whilst it needs heavy IO investment to reach it, WP's performance ceiling is higher than Stone or Invulnerability. Softcapped Defence (with the fighting pool and enough set bonuses), Hardcapped Resistances, Respectible Maximum HP and bucketloads of Regeneration. Has no holes. But has absolutely nothing that adds to your damage output (unless you count the additional endurance recovery)

That's probably fairly accurate. Personally I'd usually go "sufficient recharge" --> "damage output" --> "survivability". And for survivability I'd prefer softcapped defences first, then a mixture of resistances and maximum HP before looking too much into regeneration. I'm not sure if people tend to drastically overvalue regeneration set bonuses due to the reputation that regen scrappers enjoyed back in the day...?

Because whenever your build has exceedingly few "spare slots", including all of the potentially useful supportive IOs (such as the +Health and +Stamina uniques) becomes impossible. So you need to choose which ones to include based upon the performance boost each brings to the character. That's why I included the comparison between the various endurance slotting options above: If a build only has one spare slot to use for boosting recovery, then it will only be able to choose ONE of those five options (likely panacea) and with two spare slots it can choose TWO (panacea and miracle?) etc. The build I posted has enough spare slots for four of them, which means that it needs to drop one. The PS proc was the one that didn't make the cut. In my last post I was pointing out that the reason I personally treat PS as the "least desirable" option is because it has only has a Proc rate of 25%. This means that it is unreliable. Over the course of a minute it has a 18.00% chance of not kicking in (see cumulative binomial probability) compared to the "always active" additional recovery from a second IO in Stamina... and the theoretical performance difference between them is so slight (0.04 End/Sec) that PS becomes less attractive. Panacea technically suffers from the same issue, but its higher proc rate of 50% means that it is much more reliable in practice than PS - over the course of a minute it has only a 1.56% chance of not kicking in, and its theoretical performance is also considerably higher. Unfortunately due to the slotting constraints it's not simply a case of "slotting a PS proc into stamina", it's a case of "deciding what to give up in order to free up an enhancement slot in order to slot a PS proc into stamina". And as it stands each of the "loose" IOs in that particular build are already performing functions which grant more benefit (to my mind anyway) than a PS proc would give. A similar notion applies for +perception (for example). Taking the Rectified Reticle unique and/or Power Pool Tactics would be potentially useful- they'd bring the character to the perception cap. But in order to include them you'd need to drop other IOs and power picks, and that trade-off simply wouldn't be worth it outside of very specific situations e.g. Stalker hunting in PVP.

It does in terms of average recovery over time... but since it's coded as a chance to kick in every 10s, in practice it's a lot more 'spikey'. The proc rate is a lot lower than panacea - and I've found that often I won't see any endurance spikes from PS for ages, or it'll kick in whenever I'm already full and get "wasted". That's why I noted "and for the sake of only 0.04 End/Sec difference I'd rather have the guaranteed recovery from the 2nd Stamina slot than the "chance of" Endurance from the PS Proc." - although admittedly that's probably getting into the territory of personal preferences. By all means, work it into your build if you feel like doing so!

Yep, you'll notice my example build does the same thing for Ranged defence. It's not bulletproof but it lets you maintain a decent balance across the rest of the build. Similar deal for the S/L resistances and the extra 10% you'll gain as you take damage via the reactive defences unique. Void is great for Judgement. The damage debuff is guaranteed and lasts for ages, very useful in hard fights. Lore is a matter of personal preference (there's a Google document floating around with a full numbers breakdown) - the Arachnos ones are thematic but for pure Damage it's hard to ignore Banished Pantheon. And plenty of the supportive ones have a "+5% defence to everything" AoE toggle.

Lack of slots, mainly. Crab builds are quite tight, especially if you're trying to fit in permapets and softcapped defence/decent resists and HP and still proc-out and ED-cap the damage on your main attacks... (i) The Performance Shifter Unique grants +10% End at 1.5 PPM Slotted into Stamina, it has a 25% chance of activating every 10 seconds. That's an average of 2.5 Endurance every 10 seconds, or 0.25 End/Sec. (ii) The Miracle Unique grants Recovery, which works based off your maximum Endurance (buffable by set bonuses and accolades etc) In the build above, it's an average of 0.29 End/Sec (iii) The Numina Unique grants Regen and Recovery, which works based off your Maximum HP and Endurance pools. In the build above, it's an average of 0.19 End/Sec and 2.22 HP/Sec. (iv) The Panacea Unique grants +7.5% End and a set amount of HP (53.8126) at 3 PPM Slotted into Health, it has a 50% chance of activating every 10 seconds. That's an average of 3.75 Endurance every 10 seconds, or 0.375 End/Sec and 2.69063 HP/Sec (v) The Second +5 Endurance IO in Stamina grants 0.21 End/Sec. So for raw Endurance recovery, the priority is technically Panacea > Miracle > Performance Shifter > 2nd Stamina Slot > Numina. However Numina grants a bit of Regen, which I tend to weight a bit higher on builds without any regular self-healing... and for the sake of only 0.04 End/Sec difference I'd rather have the guaranteed recovery from the 2nd Stamina slot than the "chance of" Endurance from the PS Proc. If you really wanted to fit the PS Proc in that example build too, then you could drop the Rech/ToHit IO from Aim or the Defence IO from Combat Training:Defensive; but each of those would come with a tradeoff (you'd end up going well over the Proc cap on Guassian in Aim, and you'd drop under the softcap for Ranged Defence) I know Crabs tend to be very Endurance hungry, but you don't need to run all the toggles all the time; and there are plenty of Temp Powers or Accolades (Geas of the Kind Ones springs to mind) that can help in a pinch. Worst case you can just swap to Ageless instead of Barrier if you find yourself having real difficulties. Although admittedly my own Crabber tends to run with a Bot/Kin MM, so I'm used to on-demand Speed Boost and Transference... 🙂

The Mu Striker's damage is pants. Their only advantage is that they stay at range. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/entity.html?entity=pets_patron_powers_mu_striker I ballparked the DPS of each of the Patron Pool's Pets a while back (see attached) - the exercise was carried out for my VEAT Widow; but the same powersets hold true on a Crab. Widow_PatronPets.txt

If you're talking about the SoulBound Allegiance Proc rather than the Gaussian's; the way it functions is a 5.25s buff that kicks in 0.5 seconds into a power animation. (see https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=set_bonus.set_bonus.boost_up ) Consider the Spiderlings. They have two attacks - "Chain Gun" which animates in 1.848s and recharges in 3.8s; and "Claw" which animates in 0.924s and recharges in 2s. If the Build Up proc kicked in during "Chain Gun" then it wouldn't affect the damage of that first Chain Gun; but the effect would persist for 3.902s after it finished animating (5.75-1.848) so in theory the NEXT "Chain Gun" attack could benefit from it; even though there'd only be a window of overlap of 0.102s. However in practice that time window is usually a bit too narrow for the combat AI, so the buff ends up wasted unless the Spiderlings are in melee... If the Build Up proc kicked in during "Claw then it wouldn't affect the damage of that first Claw; but the effect would persist for 4.826s after it finished animating (5.75-0.924) and the next "Claw" attack could comfortably benefit from it; with a window of overlap of 2.826s. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/entity.html?entity=pets_patron_powers_arachnobot_spiderling The Disruptors have more powers to chain - Disruptor Bolt, Disruptor Blast and Disruptor Tesla (at range) and Claw (in melee). They're still limited by animation time, but they cycle faster. In theory they could get three of those powers into the buff time window ("Claw" plus any two of the ranged powers) but in practice it's much more likely to only affect two of them. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/entity.html?entity=pets_patron_powers_arachnobot_disrupter Finally, the Epic Pool Pet. The Blood Widow has by far the most attacks of all of the Patron pets. Best case the Proc could activate in Spin or Poison Dart and then affect three other powers (Swipe, Strike and one other) during the buff time window. However it could also activate in Slash or Eviscerate and only affect two other powers. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/entity.html?entity=pets_patron_powers_blood_widow So the Proc will be "useful" in all of the pets... but which is optimal to slot it in? One thing to consider here is the number of pets affected - you have three Spiderlings and two Disruptors but only one Blood Widow. The Spiderling's attacks aren't as frequent or damaging as the Blood Widow due to the level difference... but the proc will be firing off twice or three times as often. In my experience this is actually weighted towards the Widow; since on average the proc will affect 3 Spiderling Claw attacks in the same period of time as it'll affect 2-3 Widow melee attacks... but the Widow attacks are much more powerful. For the Disruptors, on average the proc will affect 4 Disruptor attacks in the same period of time as it'll affect 2-3 Widow attacks. The Widow attacks are still considerably more powerful, but the Disruptors do have two advantages. First, their damage is mainly *RANGED* - so they'll be merrilly shooting at everything whilst the Widow is still running from mob to mob. Secondly, they deal mainly energy damage to the Widow's lethal damage (which tends to be much more heavily resisted) So in terms of "raw damage output" it's very close between the Disruptors and the Widow. But there are two other things to consider: (i) Disruptors are less suicidal than the Blood Widow. (ii) Venom Grenade debuffs the damage resistance of Toxic damage twice as much as other types. And a good chunk of the Widow's damage is Toxic. So my advice is that if you find you're able to keep the Widow alive for its entire duration; then slot the Soulbound Allegiance proc into it. Otherwise, go with the Disruptors. Now personally, I lean towards the Blood Widow - but that's because my Crabber doesn't lack for ranged damage, and by using either Darkest Night or the Support Incarnate alongside its regular auras it can push the Widow to the defence softcap.

Quite right. Unfortunately that might not work quite as well in this particular case with such a melee-centric build - their attack chain is essentially Slice/ArmLash/Frenzy/Kick with the occasional usage of Gloom and Venom Grenade. However if they were rocking Channelgun/Longfang/Supression/FG/VG then 100% Hovercrabbermind of Doom all the way! A quick fix would be to swap one of the Unbreakable Guard 4-piece sets for a Gladiator Armor 3-piece; the unique could be moved out of CrabArmor to free up another IO slot... or just swap the extra LOTG Def in Combat Jumping to a Karma -KB.

Overall it looks grand 👍 Several of the IOs haven't been boosted up to +5 (when you're placing the IO, just tap the NumPad "+" symbol a few times in Mids) but there's nothing that leaps out at me as too out of place. It's a lot more melee-centric than my example build, but that's just a question of playstyle... 🙂 You've a little bit of leeway left with your Melee and Ranged Defences - I make those 43.87% and 43.64% respectively whenever everything is boosted to +5 (apart from the LOTG +rechs which you'll likely want to leave attuned). Remember that you'll be getting at least +5% from Barrier constantly, plus another +8% from Support when you need it (~50% uptime) so you'll end up a bit over the regular softcap point. (e.g. you could comfortably drop the Guassian set from Tactics or one of the Unbreakable Guard sets from Tough/Fortification) I'm actually a big fan of putting the Guassian Proc into Aim: its proc rate remains capped (90%) as long as you have less than 70.85% worth of slotted recharge; which means that you can cram a level 50 +5 Rech/End/ToHit IO plus a level 50 +1 Rech IO into Aim as well without any negative impact on its proc rate. The only real gap I can see is Knockback Protection. At present you're only sitting on Mag 4 which is "OK"... but might cause some issues if you're going to be in melee taking most of the hits instead of your pets. I mentioned the most useful breakpoints for KB protection in another thread fairly recently - I'd aim for Mag 7 or Mag 8 if at all possible.

There're a good few Crabberminds about; it's certainly a fun build. I like duoing a Crabber with my Bot/Kin MM for maximum carnage - all those pets sitting at Defence and Damage caps result in absolute glorious pet bedlam. Few things worth noting - firstly you only need ~185% Global recharge plus Hasten to make the pet durations permanent. Also, it's quite possible for VEATs to effectively cap Defence on their Pets (10% from the Globals + 20-21% from double maneuvers = 30-31%. Then +5% from Barrier and/or 8% from Support Radial and/or ~13-14% from Darkest Night and/or +5% from Lore Pets... and Blood Widow also gets another +5%!) whilst keeping the pets permanent and your own Defense, Resistance and Maximum HP sky high. Finally, there are a few IO sets that are "new" to HC that are worth looking into for Crabbers- "Bombardment" for Targeted AoE Damage being the main one that springs to mind. Example build below, it can trade Longfang for a different attack (such as Arm Lash, Frenzy, FG etc) by swapping its position with one of the power pool abilities. Personally I hate the redraw from the Soldier attacks, so I'd avoid Burst, but YMMV! | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1501;732;1464;HEX;| |78DA5D94594F135114C7EF6C400B95A5B46587D696B2B530263E138240C29260206| |87C69463A81499AB6B625D147BF831188269AF8E48B0FE206EA83895FC3047C1154| |0459128C113C9DFF29AD3699FCEE3DF7FCCF36773A75FB4AD5B3B1BB8342F20E278| |C6C36369431E61793A96C6C2695885B66A6626A2967E4AC545211F42BA727F4BF4B| |363A9C316EC666D256DCCC148CA1D98C6125ADE4426CCC882F98B97F9D0A87A26A3| |A954A44274D234D3B97BD19B5161673B4AB2E1C9120BB68A59DF67E266D9A71EF48| |DA9A8FCE8D0CCD52BAA5446CCAC8E6CCCC9D06AAAE9B9E3A51F89D6962991076087| |985B90A563C00EB1FE6A98AE0075908B72A9E57D25EB2B54234D0A25515AFC926C1| |26491E5AE8AAD0EBF3243D59159C694A42B5CFD424330596DD022BFA149B5ECEE52| |19506ADAC3D219BAE89B247B21DB7E7A90C5F1A7939D753CEB9D7A91E076C8AC383| |3A9CA30A380EB64D702EF2AAE45954FE51EDB3AA53A6D06CD648609DACD99A36AE2| |F3F4F17F7E6BA877817EE3397C19A15B06E15F47F0137286935D75DED17767C897A| |A9452DA2B609B6B7E4E7663FF7655C31851E0FF7E739423FDE63B0E304F4FF429E3| |5D2FBD8D7A7E3ACA19F79093E4D3EBCC75A8ADBC8BE8D3CCBA63D8E7BC0710FA179| |41719BB9F7E66D9CB5EC30BFF28CBF8191EFCC5D9E05E569E59E5AB9F700D9DAF90| |EB5F7C2D6C17C49B902FC8E027B78FF17F79907CC23DC87E01672048F85CDF7A40D| |B136C4DACE9F4CD6761E82E14D68C33BB8F3BF69DBC53D7645E0D31D65F63307F83| |EEAC8DFB32DDBB35C7309D18BBC4AEF2BF8F4BD61AE3337C053CA13E51AA39FF27A| |87E8DF646E313F23AE3E088D3E8C7CEFA8BF019EE54004F39A50CFBFD1B316F5FC5| |B1782EFD464A9CD8138D32A4BC82605E1B7EB2CF9D639F68F525B176C7B459B2CE6| |706FC2E3923DC3881F33DD2FFA48A203BA7AE6633701B9CFFAE80F43E7DAC77CC5F| |549897DC25D5C7F0C14B5D79C45FBF592F58D92F5D592F55F6CD7E84A| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

True. To fix that particular issue I'd probably swap Weave to a 6-piece Reactive Defences set and move the Shield Wall unique into one of the others (Grant Cover? Maneuvers?)... but to be honest that build has more holes in it than just "too many LoTGs". The biggest is that it's only softcapped providing you're never attacking or being attacked (see: attack supression on Hide); but its main attacks could also do with more procs, Chain Induction and Shield Charge's 6-piece set bonuses are both irrelevant; the slotting of One with the Shield, Lightning Rod, the Leadership toggles and Stamina are all a little bizzare; and it's extremely endurance hungry so Ageless will be 100% required. It's *playable*, but I'd not call it *optimised*.

Disclaimer: I've played the attached on an i24 test server, but I've not rolled it up on Homecoming yet. Defensively it's got softcapped Positionals (whilst Hide and Stealth are under attack supression and without Destiny or Hybrid Incarnates active) Capped S/L resists with One With the Shield running, or 40% without it. 1861 HP normally, 2088 HP (capped) with OOtS running. Aid Self, plus the Panacea and Absorb Procs. Decent endurance recovery: 2.82 End/Sec + Panacea (roughly another +0.4125) normally, or 3.37 End/Sec + Panacea with OOtS. Stealthcapped if you toggle Sprint on. Extremely Mobile: Combat Jumping, Superjump + Superspeed plus the Lightning Rod + Shield Charge teleports. Offensively it's tailored towards AoE and it hits like an exploding Freight Train. Most of the important attacks are procced, and the ATOs reliably kick in to rehide or recharge Build Up (which has Gaussian for extra Oomph). It has Ball Lightning for an extra AoE (to chain with Jacob's Ladder and Chain Induction between the Lightning Rods and Shield Charges!) Between Elec's built-in sleeps, the Knockdown proc in JL and the Immob proc in BL it actually also has a little bit of CC. Edit: Since this is an i24 build it doesn't take the "Zapp" Snipe, so to bring it up to i25+, swap Mu Bolts --> Zapp and slot 5x pieces of the Sting of the Manticore set into it (skipping the Dmg/Interrupt/Rech piece) plus an Apocalypse Proc. Then move the spare enhancement slot from Stealth into Super Speed and slot 2x Blessings of the Zephyr into it to keep your Ranged Defence softcapped. The optimum ST attack chain works out at AS -> CI -> JL -> Zapp -> AS -> CI -> JL -> BL/HC with Hasten running, but you'll need to take Ageless Core Epiphany to keep that up indefinitely on a Pylon. Stalker - Electric_SD IOed.mxd

The perception bonus stacks too actually. Admittedly it's only really noticible in specific niche situations, but if memory serves (and a check on https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Limits#Stealth_and_Perception backs me up here) a VEAT running 2x Tactics and a rectified reticle IO is the only toon that can spot a Stealth-Capped Stalker solo at a reasonable distance (The Stalker lights up when they're 117.6ft away, as opposed to 10ft away for regular mortals). I remember funning around with them in RV back on live.

https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Knockback/Enemies_with_Knockback_Powers Mag 4+ KB Protection is "good enough for most content" Mag 7 is the next notable breakpoint: "good enough for the vast majority of gameplay". It stops your Gales, Hurls, Lifts, Levitates, Energy Torrents, etc. Mag 8 closes the gap a little bit further. That stops Hamidon's Electrolite Blasts, the Clockwork TK Blast/Antimatter beams, and Devouring Earth Hurls/Footstomp/Thorn Blasts; and Hurricane/Psi Tornados. At this point you're essentially covered against nearly all encounters versus the major enemy groups. Mag 9 stops Longbow Warden's Force Bolts and Fake Nemesis' Staff Bolts, which is the last of the major enemy groups completely covered. Mag 10 stops some specific AV abilities and Shivan Slams/Strikes/Smashes. Mag 11 basically just stops another few specific AV abilites and Proximity Mines. Anything above that (with the notable exception of a few Elite Boss "Longbow Warden" abilities at Mag 16) is firmly in the realm of specific AVs/GM abilities only. ...so really it's only worth going above Mag 8 if you regularly fight Nemesis or Longbow Bosses.

I'm not 100% sure if hami-Os can be slotted into the upgrade powers or not... but I wouldn't be surprised if they could. However, it's important to note that whilst the level 6 and level 32 powers "unlock" extra abilities on your pets - they don't actually contain those abilities. They give your pets a passive power that functions like a boolean variable. If it's TRUE, then your summoned pet pets can use their extra abilities. If it's FALSE then they can't. In other words... if you want to increase the effectiveness of your Ember Demon's shields or heals (for example) then you should slot Ribosome or Golgi HOs into your Summon Demons power, not into the Enchant Demon or Abyssal Empowerment powers.

Agree with the above posters that your Primary makes a big difference. For +Defence, Thugs (Enforcer Maneuvers) and Robots (Protector Bot bubbles) are also worth looking at. Regarding supplemental abilities that can assist with general survivability, your Incarnate slot choices are going to grant the biggest boosts, however there are a few others that are available earlier (such as Bonfire at level 35+ from the Epic pool, slotted with a KB->KD IO) I posted my Bot/Kin build recently here with a breakdown of the Incarnate slots etc that I found helpful. It regularly farms +4/8 maps solo, so it's definitely possible to get there. AVs/GMs can get a little trickier but they're mostly doable if you leverage your siphons.

That's a common misconception about pseudopets such as Bonfire. Procs tend to either apply to either the owner of a power (e.g. buff procs), or to the "target" of a power (e.g. damage procs). And unfortunately after a psuedopet is summoned, its ongoing affects are produced by powers belonging to the psuedopet, rather than by powers belonging to the player. This means that any "owner affecting" procs (such as the Force Feedback +Rech proc) will only affect you on the initial summoning of Bonfire. (The way the powers within Bonfire are coded is visible here - note that there's an entity called bonfire that in turn uses an autohit damaging power called bonfire - this "sub power" is what actually deals damage to mobs!) However target-affecting procs definitely still apply - the problem is that they won't show up in your combat log, because they don't affect YOUR powers but those of the pseudoet... so it's difficult to tell when they activate. The jury's still out on exactly how often these are able to kick in (some say it's every 2 second tick, others claim there's a lockout period of 10 seconds). However I did a quick + dirty test this evening in a PVP Zone (Warburg). I had my Bot/Kin MM repeatedly spam bonfire on another toon (my second account's EM/Rad Scrapper) whilst the target toon had their "Real Numbers" display showing their current Smashing Resistance value, so that I could see in realtime whenever the -Res proc kicked in. I only activated Bonfire 20 times to get a very rough feel for it; but out of those 20 casts I observed 11 instances where the proc kicked in; and only 2 of those were at the very start of the casting of bonfire. On one of those tests I even observed the -res proc kicking in twice in a row back-to-back during the same casting of Bonfire (first at the very start, and then again immediately after the first effect expired, so about 10 seconds in!). Another time when the proc kicked in it was at the very end of bonfire's duration, and the -res effect remained for 5-6 seconds after bonfire expired. If we assume that Psuedopets allow a Proc check every 10 seconds, then that works out roughly on par with what I'd expect from my Kin's ~13.11% chance of the proc activating in their Bonfire. (e.g. 20x casts of Bonfire with 5x chances to proc over their duration, so 100 chances to proc total. 11 Procs observed = 11/100 = 11% Proc activation) I imagine that's why Photon Grenade is performing better for you - I had a Bot/Dark and a Bot/Traps back on live, and Bot/Traps was my main for rather a long time. To the extent that back when I first rolled my Bot/Kin I really expected that I'd miss Trip Mine and Poison Trap so much that I'd give up and reroll it... I know that /Traps has a ridiculous amount of Crowd Control and survivability compared to a /Kin; so I suspect that aspect of Bonfire is probably wasted for you? On my Bot/Kin, I'll sometimes take a while to kill an AV, but large mobs just melt - so my problem is never "killing things faster" but "trying to keep my henchmen alive" (mainly the protector bots) whilst they're standing in the middle of an immense crowd of mobs that are all +4 to me. Bonfire is the main thing that allows that toon to pull half the map and keep its 'bots alive long enough for everything to start burning. At least between Incarnate Buffs. If I'm being perfectly honest, I'd not miss the -res much (if at all) if I dropped Bonfire, but that 25ft radius constant guaranteed knockdown is a total lifesaver.

I actually tested a bunch of the Bot/ Personal Attacks (including Photon Grenade) a few months ago on my Bot/Kin - PG's not bad, but it's fairly low-radius (15ft compared to Bonfire's 25ft) and the most it'll be firing off is about once every 7 seconds. The inherent stun is only a few seconds long and a paltry Mag 2; and the KD->KB proc by itself doesn't guarantee a bounce, so it'll never be a particularly reliable means of negating a mob's incoming damage (which is honestly the main point of Bonfire for me as a /Kin - even SoftCapped I definitely find that I need some extra damage mitigation when I'm running at +4/8. The fact that it keeps the foes nicely bunched up for Fulcrums and Burn Missile Spam is icing...) Admittedly when I tried PG it was whilst I was trying to pick a personal attack power, rather than as a contest between it and bonfire. I slotted it up as "-res debuff" with 5x Stupefy plus the -res proc... but I eventually gave up and reverted to Pulse Rifle Blast instead, since I found I lacked ST damage more than AoE damage. That said, OFFENSIVELY it's a miles better option than Bonfire - so it'd probably raise your clear speed a bit if your choice is between those two abilities? That -res proc will be doing most of the work though, since the damage by itself is rather pants (a quick glance at MIDs suggests it's the region of ~120 fully Fulcrum-Shifted...) ((Perhaps worth pointing out that my PPM Calculator says Photon Grenade + 5x Annihilation and the OF KD->KB IO has a 20.66% chance to proc for the KB->KD IO, and a 24.79% chance for the -res to kick in. Compare that with Bonfire's pretty-much-100% chance of KD, and a ~13.11% chance for -res!)) 😃

I happened across this thread whilst hunting for opinions on VEAT slotting, and kudos are definitely due! Lots of good ideas to be had! 🙂 I've been working on trying to push the Single-target DPS of my Widow as high as possible recently - so far the below is the best I've managed to come up with. It does make use of Procs, but I've noticed that the following attack chain pulls slightly ahead of just using 'Followup -> Lunge -> Slash/Swipe -> Strike' all the time: FollowUp -> Lunge -> Slash -> Strike >>> FollowUp -> Lunge -> Swipe -> Slash >>> FollowUp -> Lunge -> Strike -> Swipe Total chain time = 14.256s. Total damage = 6797.2 = 476.80 DPS. Endurance used = 66.24 = 4.65 End/Sec. That endurance consumption is obviously severe enough to drain the build normally (+3.01 End/Sec surplus) but it's different story with Ageless Core Epiphany running (minimum of +4.97 End/Sec surplus) I was a bit torn on whether to go for Mu or Soul Mastery - but the Blood Widow has a full melee attack chain (gaining greater benefit from the Soulbound Allegiance "Build Up" Proc) and sits at 33.58% Defence to all before Incarnate Abilities (so it can effectively hit softcap via Darkest Night and/or Lore pet buffs and/or taking Leadership Pool 'Maneuvers'). Unenhanced, a Blood Widow's attack chain tops out at around 5.310 DPS (Ranged) and 38.075 DPS (Melee); whereas the Mu Striker is much better behaved but only clocks in at around 19.021 DPS (Ranged). Between the above attack chain and the Pet, this build can push ~560 DPS in ideal conditions without any Assault or Lore Incarnate powers active; which makes it substantially better at pure single-target damage output when "soloing" than my next-best toon (an Energy Melee Scrapper that sits at ~460 DPS under the same conditions). Defencewise it's rather less optimal, but 1606HP plus 62% Positional Melee Defence and softcapped Ranged/AoE Defence appears to be enough for most content; and between the Reactive Defences IO and Foresight its damage resistance still climbs fairly high whenever its health drops; buying it time to use an Aid Self or just wait for the Panacea and Preventative Medicine procs to kick in whilst it slowly regenerates 19.6HP/second. Elude's crash is always a PITA, but it makes a handy dumping ground for set bonuses and I've found it rather decent vs the odd roomful of Nemesis etc. Note that "Confront" at Lv49 can be swapped out for Leadership Pool "Assault" during regular content (the build will still squeak in at just enough endurance recovery to keep the above attack chain going indefinitely with Ageless Core Epiphany running: 4.73 End/Sec surplus!)

I've played a Robot/Kin MM rather extensively now - the below build is obviously rather expensive, but it gives some idea of the sort of higher-end numbers and performance you can hit at endgame. Some notable features include: (i) "All positional defences for the MM at 40% or higher" (easily pushing beyond the 45%+ softcap permanently with a Barrier Incarnate). Personal Maximum HP also sits just over 1100, which means you're more likely to survive a lucky hit or three. (ii) The build manages to fit in all the Resistance and Defence pet uniques, so as long as you're using Increase density (and you should be) the 'bots willl end up with 61.14% L/C/P, 65.04% S/E, 35% F/N/T Res, plus a fair amount of defence. All positional defences for the Battle Drones and Assault Bot are at 40% or higher. The Protector Bots are more difficult to Softcap since they each only get a single bubble, but they can push past 27%... so layering Hybrid Slot's Support Core Embodiment (+12%) with either Destiny Slot's Barrier Core Epiphany (+5%) or one of the Lore pet's buffs will softcap it. (iii) Assault Bot, Protector Bot and Bonfire with the Knockback->Knockdown Procs. (You don't need one in the Battle Drones, since their only ability with Knockback is granted by "Equip Robot", which you should never be applying on them or the Assault Bot after you reach level 32). Fulcrum Shift + Bonfire + the Assault Bot's Missile Burn Patches is absolute devastation. (iv) Perma-Hasten. Important for Bonfire. (v) Personal attacks: Pulse Rifle Blast (Because you'll be at the damage cap most of the time, and you'll want something to chain with the Blackwand and/or Nemesis Staff for Single-Target damage). Fireball. (Just add Fulcrum shift. 'nuff said!) (vi) Group Fly, because there are times when you don't want your henchmen to have to walk on the caltrops or wade through rikti gas... and because they have built-in Rocket boots and it's fun to use them occasionally. The main weakness (as with most defence-heavy toons) is enemies with a lot of Defence and ToHit such as Nemesis... but it'll happily plow its way through a fire farm at +4/8, melting 2-3 groups of mobs at a time through a combination of Fulcrum Shift + Bonfire + Swarm Missiles Burn Patches; Fireball and the Void Radial Final Judgement explosion. It clears maps solo faster than most teams, even if you wait for your bots to get their bubbles up at the start instead of dropping a Barrier Incarnate buff on them. Typical playstyle is "Let your bots buff up, then switch them to aggressive, chuck a Speed Boost and an Increase Density on them and run into melee range of a huge mob (you can GOTO your 'bots to the mob before you charge in if you're not feeling suicidal). Drop a Fulcrum Shift on yourself and your Assault Bot (followed by a Transfusion if needed) and then drop a Bonfire right as the Swarm missiles are going off. As everything starts bouncing up and down on the bonfire whilst burning to death; start pulling more mobs with fireballs until you and all of your bots are sitting at the aggro cap." It's shedloads of fun, and a very active (but rewarding) configuration for a Mastermind. Bot AI has improved dramatically in the past few patches - they're much better at staying where you put them these days and using their AoE laser spam instead of charging around meleeing random minions, which makes Fulcrum Shifting them absolutely wonderful. I should probably also point out that my view is it's much better to avoid damage entirely via Defence instead of reducing it via Damage Resistance - so I'd never bother taking "Tough" on a MM. Between Fulcrum Shift, Siphon Speed and Siphon Power my enemies' damage output should be getting severely reduced anyway; but if I really need to reduce incoming damage for some reason then I can always switch a few pets (Battle Drones for preference) to bodyguard mode and start spamming Transfusion; and on occasions where I really get in over my head I can superspeed away... ...or use Rise of the Phoenix and THEN superspeed away... 😉 For Incarnates: Alpha Slot = Agility Core Paragon. Defence, Recharge and EndMod --> all of these are useful for you. You will never need Musculature - in regular content you will constantly be at the damage cap via twin-stacked Fulcrum Shifts; and against powerful single-targets you should be spamming Siphon Power. I would however still recommend slotting powers for damage, because you rarely lose anything by doing so; and it's useful against AVs. Destiny Slot = Clarion Core is useful for mezzing enemies, otherwise Barrier Core (it's an invincibility button. Use it right before diving into the middle of a huge mob for optimum Fulcrums!) Judgement = Void Radial. PBAoEs are lovely with you being in melee range for Fulcrum Shifts anyway; plus the 30s damage debuff can be very useful combined with Siphon Power + Fulcrum against AVs/GMs. Hybrid = Support Core Embodiment. +12% to pets? Complete no-brainer. Interface = Degenerative. Radial Flawless gives slightly better performance than the Core Flawless for most content. -MaxHP is by far the best debuff available. Lore = pick whatever you like. My personal favourite is the Warworks Radial Superior Ally - the Battle Orb gives a constant +5% Defence and has a heal that doesn't rely on accuracy, and the Victoria brings very nice Single Target damage, which Robots/ normally lacks. Plus they're mechanical; so it's both useful and thematic. This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.0.5.9 https://github.com/Reborn-Team/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Mastermind Primary Power Set: Robotics Secondary Power Set: Kinetics Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Heat Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Battle Drones (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage (3) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (3) Blood Mandate - Damage (7) Call to Arms - Defense Bonus Aura for Pets (9) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets (21) Edict of the Master - Defense Bonus Level 1: Transfusion (A) Touch of the Nictus - Healing/Absorb/Recharge (7) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing/Absorb (11) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Healing/Absorb (11) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (17) Miracle - Heal (21) Miracle - +Recovery Level 2: Siphon Power (A) Accuracy IO (19) Recharge Reduction IO Level 4: Pulse Rifle Burst (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage (5) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance (5) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge (9) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (23) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (25) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 6: Equip Robot (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 8: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (46) Luck of the Gambler - Defense Level 10: Siphon Speed (A) Accuracy IO (19) Recharge Reduction IO Level 12: Protector Bots (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage (13) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (13) Blood Mandate - Damage (15) Defense Buff IO (15) Defense Buff IO (17) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown Level 14: Fly (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (46) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) Level 16: Increase Density (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (33) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (33) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance (37) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP (37) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (43) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) Level 18: Hover (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 20: Speed Boost (A) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%) Level 22: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (31) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge Level 24: Tactics (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff (25) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge (31) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance (33) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance (34) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance (34) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up Level 26: Assault Bot (A) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Damage (27) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Damage (27) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (29) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Endurance/Pet +Resist +Regen (31) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus (34) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown Level 28: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (29) Recharge Reduction IO Level 30: Super Speed (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (46) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) Level 32: Upgrade Robot (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 35: Bonfire (A) Overwhelming Force - Endurance/Recharge (36) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (36) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (36) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown (37) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge (45) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff Level 38: Fulcrum Shift (A) Accuracy IO (39) Accuracy IO Level 41: Fire Ball (A) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage (42) Superior Frozen Blast - Damage/Endurance (42) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (42) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (43) Superior Frozen Blast - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (43) Superior Frozen Blast - Recharge/Chance for Immobilize Level 44: Transference (A) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge (45) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge (45) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy Level 47: Rise of the Phoenix (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage (48) Superior Avalanche - Damage/Endurance (48) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (48) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (50) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (50) Superior Avalanche - Recharge/Chance for Knockdown Level 49: Group Fly (A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance (50) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points) Level 1: Supremacy Level 1: Brawl

Now all I can think about is oceans of multicoloured dots, a huge pile of corpses and Back Alley Brawler wondering why the Dark Miasma guys are asking for someone to shoot an Oil Slick Arrow at them.

Which is why you only use Siphon Speed or Speed Boost on your pets if you're a masochist. Transfusion is plenty to keep their Endurance topped up, should you not manage to make their slotting self-sufficient. Also, Ranged MM Primaries (e.g. Robots) become remarkably well behaved if you take Group Fly and float *above* the mob. Takes a little getting used to for positioning purposes with Fulcrum Shift, but it tends to prevent your little blighters from flying into a panic should a few caltrops or a dead rikti monkey suddenly appear anywhere on the same map.