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I have a number of builds where I slot the %-Res pieces in DoT (or delayed damage) with the hopes that the %-Res happens first, increasing damage dealt. I have never studied if it actually helps (in solo).

As I wrote in another thread, I also calculated about 43% for Axe Cyclone (per 3.5 PPM, per mobile) which aligns with my Tanker experience. From memory, I think that for Axe Cyclone the PPM damage occurs on cast (when each hit mob is moved) and not when the regular damage happens... Similar to a power like Levitate where PPM damage occurs when the mob is tossed but the inherent damage occurs after the ragdoll effect resolves.

This has not been my experience, it is an inherent 18 second recharge with 15' radius. When I ran the numbers for a 3.5 PPM piece I was seeing a %proc rate of something like 43%. EDIT: IIRC, this is one of those powers where the %damage will fire at a different time than the standard damage. Perhaps you are just missing it?

Sadly: This is far too frequently just a physical manifestation of the state of the code (and its management plan) for any given software.

I like your approach. I didn't want to go %proc on this Blaster... the appeal to me would be front-loading damage on casts (such as for Whirlpool). Obviously I opted for set bonuses. If this combo was on something like a Defender/Corrupter/Controller I would absolutely be more proc-tastic. I originally had the Force Feedback %+Recharge piece in Geyser. It always (90%) fired, but it was having very little effect on my attack chain. Geyser itself is too long a recharge to get much benefit from it, and while it did help the faster recharging powers (that were being used), I found that the extra oomph from it was to infrequent, so I adjusted my attack chain/play style instead. Maybe it makes a difference with Hasten in the build. Global Recharge is one of those effects I like to test by using unslotters (see also Regeneration).

She's forty-one and her daddy still calls her baby...

My Mind/Poison, which is fun and effective. I've played it on any number of Penny Yin TFs (before and after i27p5) where he's been doing more damage than any other single player on the TF(*1). This is the page 5 version: (*1) EDIT: Those TF PUGs were (from memory) generally made up of lower-level characters (not exemplaring down), exemplars with characters who took higher-DPS or AoE powers late in the build, or single-target ATs. It isn't like this guy is a one-man mass-murder squad, it's just that between the confuses, debuffs and AoE he competes.

I haven't revisited any of my VEATs post-i27p5... part of me is hesitant to touch characters I've played for so long and been so satisfied with. I will note: I usually don't exemplar with my Crabbermind build anyway. The only thing that jumps out at me is the Force Feedback %+Recharge in Frag Grenade. I know why its there, but I think you will get slightly more utility out of the (Superior) Dominion of Arachnos Recharge/%Terrorize instead. If you absolutely need it to have the higher-tier pets ready to resummon when they expire I won't argue the point. Crabberminds' Recharge can be tricky in my experience because unless all the pets of a certain tier are getting wiped, resumonning a reload will still have them all expire on the original timer. From memory, I simply tried to get the higher tier re-summoning times "just right" rather than trying to maximize Global recharge.

I don't remember the "launch" days as being better than today (or even very good, frankly) at driving "team balance among ATs". It was much more like "oh yeah, that's the powerset that will help" and not "What we need is (any) _____". There were plenty of character concepts that were not as well-loved if they picked the "wrong" primary/secondary. IMO the Homecoming team has done an excellent job caretaking the "City of", as it is much easier to make a character of any concept into one that can contribute to teams and/or not struggle through solo content. The only thing these days working against team membership is not using the /invite command. Some less than pleasant memories: Fiery Aura Tankers didn't need teams to trivially earn XP. Scrappers could be built to be effective as Tankers, plus didn't struggle to clear maps. We have been throwing a lot of shade at early-game Tankers for team-chatting "wait for me to gather the map", but lets not forget the Radiation Emission Defender spam "Gather for AM" and "Kill my target LAST". Invulnerable and Stone Tanks to enemy mobs: "I'll just stay here (rooted, or behind this curb) while you scamper about." Tankers had a few elements of old-school glory but outside of those they were not really needed for 98% of content. Issue 1's addition of Peregrine Island allowed summoning of HUGE amounts of Rikti Monkeys (as well as Giant Monsters) to Portal Corp. Jerk move or pure awesome? Dev's didn't like it. Issue 6's PvP demonstrated how annoying certain Tanker builds could be to other players, yet if the Tanker couldn't be defeat there was no way it was going to defeat anyone else (except maybe via Stun).

I tried to make Venomous Gas work (on a /Poison Controller), but my experience was that in practice: I couldn't affect enough opponents, and I couldn't do enough damage from the point of PBAoE to enough of the opponents I was affecting, and I couldn't survive the extra melee, on top of whatever ranged attacks were already coming my way. There are circumstances where I felt it was doing something, but for me it just wasn't worth the power pick or slot investment.

This past week I got my "Play (99%) Blueside Content at Appropriate Level" (so, lots of solo, long stretches of no XP) character to level 50, and did the obligatory respec, my (non Incarnate) level 50 build is below. Some comments: Water Blast offers a FUN character, but not a particularly top-tier one. I think the lack of a Snipe really hurts this set. I used Water Jet while leveling, but I was extremely disappointed with its damage (for a T7). I ended up wanting to add Tidal Forces (juggling it with Ionize, especially to get the disorient on Geyser), so Water Jet was what ended up being cut. My general feeling is that Water Blast is a pretty mediocre single-target set with standard AoE options(*1). It has many fun animations. I came to see the only positive aspect of Water Jet to be that it was the fastest animation I used in the set. Atomic Manipulation really grew on me, especially once I was able to trigger Gamma Rays. I didn't opt for the Immobilize or Holds (all hail page 5!). As the mediocre performance of the Water Blast primary was revealing itself, I found myself relying on the secondary attacks more-and-more. I LOVE that Beta Decay interrupts enemies that spawn pets, and that Positronic Fist/Negatron Slam contain soft (but often low magnitude) controls. Atom Smasher was on the respec chopping block, but I found that it was a crucial attack to use when getting swarmed (or Blinded!) Flame Mastery was chosen pretty much for Rise of the Phoenix (and Fire Shield), because this character is living the Blapper life. Infiltration as a travel power: This was chosen for a variety of reasons. Mainly: as I was doing "all the content" I didn't really need to fight enemies for XP, so I stealthed many missions. I got used to the relative door-to-door speed. This build has some choices to improve travel speeds that I don't expect others to employ. Infiltration is an awesome place to slot certain pieces of course. (*1) I skipped Hasten, even though it could pretty trivially be made perma on this build. It would help a little with some of the longer recharge powers, but I can't convince myself that slightly faster recharge times on those powers would really make a difference in my experience. If I wanted Hasten, I'd replace Tidal Forces with it at level 18. The power order is pretty much as it was leveling up, with the exception being Water Jet was in place of Tidal Forces. I had slots moved around for typical leveling, such as the Kismet +ToHit piece in Infiltration. I had some %procs (like Overwhelming Force: Knockdown in Steam Spray) to help while leveling. Some final comments for anyone trying to adapt this build for MOAR BETTER play... or put another way, here is what I'm thinking for a second build: Drop Infiltration and Combat Teleport and lean into the Sorcery pool to get Rune of Protection. I am thinking Mystic Flight (for travel and quasi-BAMF) and Spirit Ward... I don't have the slots to do Arcane Bolt justice even if I think it would be better than Water Jet. I might convince myself to shuffle slots out of Metabolic Acceleration and Stamina to 5-slot Arcane Bolt. The ranged attack chain has a bit of a gap that a well-slotted Arcane Bolt could fill. The biggest issue facing this character are the enemy mezzes, which is why having RoP would be something of a game-changer. Adding RoP and a different travel power would allow me to make some other choices in slotting as well. Also, in the build above I was trying for set bonuses for Defense values. Whirlpool does not need that many slots, except of course for set bonuses. Ionize is in the same category. The only power I'd consider changing to %procs is the cone Steam Spray, specifically for Knockdown (via Overwhelming Force) I don't like putting non-set %procs into Blaster attacks. Giving up set bonuses in Steam Spray allows for some Range slotting, for players who want to lean into (long) range more. Even with a MOAR PEW-PEW build, I'm still not sold on trying to add Hasten (or perma-Hasten) to this build, and breaking up the Preventive Medicine set bonuses would hurt... plus I need to find new mules for LotG pieces. I'd probably just keep skipping it altogether or simply not care about perma-Hasten.

Has anyone tried to use 'costume powers' while in non-human form? I have to admit that I haven't ever tried.

IIRC, Auras are one of the game effects that make ToHit checks, but ONLY show the misses in the log (either by default, or "for because"). There was a thread a long while back about the RNG in the bugs sub-forum that discussed this. The only other combat behavior I know shows the same behavior (only logging misses) are the "aggressive mode" henchmen/pet combat logs against targetable (by the "pets", not by player) objects.

Is this a Brute or Scrapper combo: Dark/Bio ?. The Primary offers Siphon Life, Dark Consumption, and Soul Drain. The secondary offers DNA Siphon and Parasitic Aura.

After page 5: I kept Time Wall, but still only single-slotted it (Endoplasm Acc/Mezz). The only Melee attacks on this character are Future Pain and End of Time, so as a practical matter I see it as a wash to try to do any math if I could slot Aging Touch to make up from the effect and utility of Time Wall. Put another way: I'm typically casting ranged attacks anyway, and when I transition to a melee I'd rather have the effects of Time Wall plus whichever melee attack than just some more melee Psi Damage. If against single hard targets, I definitely would rather have the -Regeneration (and slow) from Time Wall than trying to leverage a single-target (Psi) melee attack.

I'm feeling very much the same way about Water Jet; it feels enough like a T2 primary attack that I'm wondering if instead of this T7 I should just have both the T1 and T2 attacks slotted to be able to cast each of them while mezzed. I like the animation.

Because of that same thread, I've been looking at a similar sort of Blaster build (definitely same secondary), likely a different primary. I wasn't planning on multiple attacks from Fighting... I have trouble squeezing in more than 4 pool powers before level 24. Posting here because I want to keep track of this thread! I've been (slow) leveling up a blappy character 3 melee, plus several ranged attacks), and the biggest takeaway during this effort (pre-50) is that larger spawn sizes can be highly annoying. It doesn't take much for things to go pear-shaped. It takes some effort (slotting, power choices) to get defenses above +30% and resistances are basically *shrug*. The primary source of grief for me has been large spawn sizes that contain multiple sources of (long duration) mezz. Rune of Protection would cure this problem for me(*1), but I simply don't want to dedicate the choices to get it for my "fun" version of the character. I mention this because in the Speedster discussion, the Sorcery pool is probably off-the-table anyway, and it requires 3 power pool picks that Speedster concepts are not likely to have. (*1) I'm not familiar with how well Inner Will can do the same thing, but this is one of the reasons why /Martial was appealing to me.

Certain Mastermind combos are more than adequate for taking down "event GMs". Debuff regeneration, pile on attacks and they are pretty much good-to-go. -MaxHP can help. MMs have another inherent advantage to "clean up" duty, in that the henchmen can be set on aggressive and can be directed to work on cleaning up areas. Other ATs have to take a more active role in cleanup. I find I still need to pay attention to not miss critters that have zipped away. If fighting GMs that natively spawn in high-level zones (e.g. Peregrine Island), since those are scaled up inherent to the zone and take longer to wear down (solo), I find it difficult to keep those GMs from running towards other GMs, because I typically skip the immobilizes.

Not all characters can solo the zone-spawned Giant Monsters, but there are a few of us who will take characters that can for a stroll through certain zones to collect a relatively easy 6 merits (10 for the first daily defeat of Adamastor)... either as catharsis or simply "just because". I want to remind us all that there are zone conditions that will prevent certain GMs from respawning, so if you are the sort of player who finds hunting GMs to be rewarding, please do your part to "reset the event" such that the GM(s) will respawn (for yourself, for others). Generally: The main thing that will prevent a GM from respawning is if it spawned with, or as part of a self-cast, an enemy mob(ile). Some GM events "self clean up" (e.g. Ghost of Scrapyard) but many do not. Some GMs spawn along with (or summon) mobs that are always close, so I won't fault anyone for not noticing they do this... but those mobs also need to be cleaned up (Babbage in Boomtown, Caleb, Deathsurge) if for some reason AoE's haven't clear out the spawns. The main zones that are problematic are listed below: Kings Row (Paladin) There are three different Paladin events, located at [-1614.5 24.1 1760.0] [535.7 131.1 2757.1] [-2812.9 139.7 -457.1] If ANY of the "even level" clockworks from a single spawn point remain on the map, a Paladin event will not respawn at that point. These guys are tricky, as they will move to follow their Paladin (as long as he is on the map) and also follow players that draw their aggro. Practically, this means that they can most likely be found between their spawn point and the "resting place" of Paladin... but also could have moved towards hospital (having chase a defeated player) or towards a door (that was a mission for a player). The easiest way to identify these clocks is to show the villain name, and see the mobs that "even con" /optionset showvillainname 1 Note that "even con" mobs always give XP/Inf and drops, so it isn't as if there is zero reward for cleaning them up. Jurassik (Crey's Folly) This one is a little peculiar, but I have verified (through play) that if a player leaves the Rubble (from the Jurassik Rubble... i.e. the "grand-rubbles") that Jurassik will NOT respawn in Crey's Folly. It takes little effort to make sure these are destroyed before running away from the zone. Unfortunately these con at level 40, and not even con... but they all are summoned when the predecessor is defeated, so it doesn't take calculus to find them after a Jurassik defeat. Croatoa (Croatoa War) This is IMO the most annoying of the "timed" respawns, because when the GMs appear to fight one another they appear with large spawns of mobs, and will also respawn. These mobs are also NOT even con, and are at a high enough level that they may not be trivially wiped out while fighting the GMs. Luckily, there is a zone message Monster activity in Croatoa has returned to normal levels that will let you know if you have got them all. If you don't see this zone message after defeating the GMs, you didn't get all the spawns and the event will not reset. The mobs you have to defeat will be the ones that spawned as part of the event, and not just the usual spawns that appear in the Grim Vale. Note that they are likely to follow someone who just defeated a GM, so they can be drawn away from the Grim Vale by a sloppy GM hunter who heads to the base portal or monorail or wherever. Here is my list of "most likely" ways to find them: Look for single mobs "by themselves", especially if they are on the "wrong side" of the Grim Vale for their type. That is: Red Caps near Witch's side, Pumpkins near Red Caps, etc. Note that there are "normal" spawns that do this, but some experience will teach you which are normal and which are leftorvers. Look for single mobs hiding in the treetops on the Witch's side. Look for single mobs on the Lake side of the grim vale (I've watched mobs follow a GM hunter "over the hill" and stop there outside of the vale) These spawns are not "even con" so they are easy for a level 50 to miss. I haven't had the patience to determine if the mobs that spawn with Jack in Irons or Eochai outside of the Croatoa War event need to be defeated or if they will eventually de-rez after the GM is defeated. I will note that the Red Caps that spawn with Jack are exceptionally prone to running all over creation, but waiting less than a minute after Jack is defeated is enough to get them to come back to be finished off. Because of the areas where Jack will spawn, those Red Caps can end up hiding out of sight. Hallowe'en Events: AFAIK, the Unseelie Court spawn needs to be defeated to get another zone spawn of a GM. As I wrote above, some GMs summon creatures. Babbage spawns "even con", but not many and they are usually defeated by any AoE attack. In my experience Caleb's ghostie pals will always find their way back to him (to be defeated), but because of their nature (flying, ethereal) I wouldn't take the chance of them de-rezzing.

The bolded part is a feature, not a bug. You can opt to slot the unique from the Thrust set, this will keep some of the Speed. I think if you want the feel of "fast-moving melee" you need to leverage power pools that offer you the ability to teleport to targets. I have at least one character that uses Super Speed as a travel power, but also has Combat Teleport. She isn't imagined as a "speedster" per se, but she certainly moves around maps and combat zones like one. If the Experimentation pool is used, Speed of Sound offers the ability to Jaunt. I don't think it makes balance sense to ask for passive damage that isn't part of an aura, or damaging attacks as part of movement pool power. FWIW look at the knockdown when Takeoff is used as part of Mighty Leap... no damage, and the "attack" has a timer. As mentioned by @MonteCarla, I'd plan on trying to maximize running speed... because not being among the first players to a mission door would break the concept for me, YMMV. As I wrote above, I'd want Combat Teleport (or use Jaunt) to "move faster than the human eye" during combat. As far as AT? I'd certainly opt for a non-weapon melee of some sort, but I'd be open to any set that offers animations/powers that could be rationalized. Often comic book speedsters have "electrical side effects", but I wouldn't restrict myself to those. The "arm waving" animation of Wall of Force's cone attack sort of looks like something a speedster might pull off, but it's a third-power pick in the Force of Will pool, so that works against my recommendations above (slots will be tight, and can't take both Force of Will and Experimentation pools). The Blaster secondary Martial Combat has a fun attacks, I just don't know how committed I could be about minimizing a primary choice to stick with melee, cones and PBAoE. [I think a Blaster does a better job mimicking the fragility of comic-book speedsters... I guess Regeneration can do the same, or use Willpower if a player wants the character to be MOAR BETTER, YMMV] EDIT: I'll add another "easy" Power Pool option for consideration. The Concealment pool's Infiltration will also add to Run/Jump speed and control... and when combined with something like a +Stealth piece in a travel power will render a character invisible (while not moving, assuming no Aura) to all enemies except for the "super perception" class mobs. This can mimic a Speedster's moving so fast as to not be noticed. Infiltraion is a single power pick, and the pool itself offers several other powers that can mule defense Enhancement pieces.

I don't have that specific combo, but I have both the primary and secondary on different characters. On my /Time, I took Chronos early in the build and have it on auto; my final build has it firing every 22 seconds, with the first 10 of those with a 90% chance of Build Up. On my Water Blast/ I actually haven't taken Tidal Forces, opting for the secondary's Build Up (Ionize) instead... I wanted MOAR +Damage more than the Tidal Power. I am going to experiment with sacrificing the PBAoE Atom Smasher to add Tidal Forces (some of the secondary effects are quite nice... I am just not sure if I need the extra control of when I have them), yet I hate to give up the PBAoE. The power I WANT Tidal forces for is Geyser.

Melee characters get a macro to teleport to a target, and a bind to teleport around maps (stuck on a torch? try Combat Teleport!) My ranged characters get both of the above, plus a macro to teleport backwards 25 feet (or so); this is usually the right range for a cone attack.

Cross Beam?

I'm assuming Crimson's "World Wide Red" arc. If instead of exiting the mission, always(?) in Founders Falls, a player exits to another zone the GM will spawn in that zone. It's the same with the Babbage from the Synapse TF.

I'd like to see the Rularuu invasions (occasionally) spawn. If tied to the completion of any of the Shadow Shard arcs, it's not as if they would happening as frequently as the Nemesis or Rikti Invasions. I have mixed feelings about the Shadow Shard (arc design, story, maps, lore), yet I still liked seeing those creatures show up en masse on the lower-level open-world maps of Paragon City.