Redlynne

Ah, another 2D Cone user who doesn't know they can be used in 3D as a PBAoE-ish attack when doing a Hop 'n' Pop. Note that the Hop 'n' Pop can be used with ANY Cone attack (such as Empty Clips in the Dual Pistols set), it's just that Frost synergizes really well with it when Frost is enhanced for Range (of all things).

The Energy Font is coded to only be summoned when a Controller ... not a Pet ... casts the power the Energy Font is slotted into.

Babylon 5 is what showed that serialized television was not only possible but a superior storytelling vehicle for television.

Telling other Players "I could have been a better aggro magnet but figured why bother?" is a poor excuse WHEN the issue comes up.

MAJOR UPDATE posted. So major in fact that I needed to reorganize the posted build(s) in order to be able to fit them into the available space I'd reserved. LINK The incredibly huge change that I made was ... dropping Cobra Strike entirely out of the build so as to move those slots into Thunder Kick(!) ... which then enabled a rewrite of the attack chains and ... the build got BETTER because of it! Totally wasn't expecting that result. The HUGE factor that is all too easy to overlook is that pairing Storm Kick and Thunder Kick together makes it possible to use both of those powers TWICE per attack rotation in EVERY circumstance, effectively increasing the overall defensive/resistant potential of the build at a slight (and therefore acceptable) cost to Stun stacking potential (but with added Knockdown potential to help compensate). To vastly oversimplify what I found ... "It's all connected, man..." So I've edited everything to put the v3.0.1 Cobra Strike version in first followed by the v3.1.0 Thunder Kick variant to make cross-comparisons of relative merits easier to manage. At this point, I'm feeling pretty darn confident that the Thunder Kick invested build is superior to the Cobra Strike one for reasons that are NOT apparent at a first glance of the build in the planner, simply looking at power picks and slots. Oh and switching to Thunder Kick allowed me to move Rune of Protection earlier into the build and pick it up by Level 32. You're welcome, @Bopper.

Derp. Forgot to pull out the Area Factor that's used on Tactics.

If Focused Accuracy is a toggle that affects self (and I'm pretty sure it is) then the proc chance will be 6.5% every 10 seconds. NOT good odds. So if it's a choice between a click power like Rage and a toggle power like Focused Accuracy ... pick Rage to put it into. However, if you've got Tactics put it there where it will get 1 proc chance per ally getting buffed within the 60 ft PBAoE around you ... which in a Team-8 configuration results in a 41.5% aggregated proc chance every 10s ... and in League play can have the proc chance zoom up towards (and beyond?) 90% chance every 10s, simply due to how many people are being buffed by the Tactics aura. It's still a 6.5% chance per ally buffed (including yourself), but chuck enough dice and those small odds start getting some pretty routine hits ... and that's not even including the possibility of multi-proc per activation due to how many allies are being buffed (one 6.5% proc chance per each). There's a reason why I like putting the Build Up proc into Tactics on my builds so much ... 😎

There's an update ... 😎

Is this even approximately up to date anymore?

Also good advice on deciding what to put where (and why). However the counter to that is the fact that the attack chains I'm planning on using tend to put use of Dragon's Tail towards the front after use of Storm Kick. Storm Kick to boost Defense by +10% (All) then Dragon's Tail for mass Knockdown(age) to blunt the incoming alpha strike. The only real question is whether Storm Kick gets used once or twice per rotation and whether Dragon's Tail gets used once or zero times per rotation (depending on single target vs multi-target). So under those conditions, keeping Might of the Tanker in Storm Kick for a high(er) proc chance for +Resistance that can wind up being used 5 times per 20 seconds on single target rotation without Eagle's Claw so as to "fight defensively" against a single hard $Target winds up having more merit on balance than swapping slots. There simply aren't any attack chains available in which Dragon's Tail would be getting used more than 3 times per 20 seconds without radically changing the build from where it has settled. The deciding factor then becomes the best way to achieve a mix of combat longevity (low net endurance loss over time) while generating the highest probability chances to proc +Resistance as often as possible to mitigate incoming damage to the greatest extent possible, with Absorb procs essentially being "bonus" or extra mitigation layered on top of that. In this case, the higher tempo of proc opportunities in Storm Kick outweighs the advantage of higher proc chances in Dragon's Tail. Or to put it in apples to apples terms ... Storm Kick gets used EVERY combat rotation (sometimes more than once!), while Dragon's Tail does not have the same quantity of opportunities to attack, even if Dragon's Tail will hit more $Targets per attack. Against a single target 2 attacks at a 32% chance to proc (each) is better than 1 attack with a 37% chance to proc within the same animation time span ... and it's against the strongest and most powerful of single targets that having a better chance at a deeper stack of +Resistance becomes the most valuable. So definitely glad I explored the option on this one, but given which proc effects I would rather have tied to which power usages ... I guess I'm going to stand pat with my original ATO slotting after all. Because Quantity has a Quality all of its own ... particularly when relying on the Chuck Lots of Dice!! strategy to augment your build design strategems.

That helps tremendously! So if the +Resistance proc is limited to one proc per use of power then the only advantage to putting it into Dragon's Tail is an increased proc chance per use but stacking to 3x deep becomes problematic due to the delays between uses of Dragon's Tail. In which case, the best opportunity to build multiple stacks is to use Storm Kick as often as possible ... which is only possible in the current slotting arrangement when using the single target without Eagle's Claw attack chain where Storm Kick is being used repeatedly every ~4 seconds. Under those circumstances it is possible (although unlikely) to reach 3x stacks for brief periods of time (~2 seconds worth). Conversely, the best place for the +Absorb proc winds up being in Dragon's Tail so as to proc a non-stacking Absorb on a delayed tempo where if the Absorb lasts for 15 seconds you want to have an attack chain that takes over 7.5 seconds to finish animating in which Dragon's Tail gets used once per rotation so as to only miss "1 chance instead of 2" due to the timing of the rotations. Hmm ... then why does the tooltip in Mids' show a 10s duration? Is the 10s number a PvP vs PvE setting? So ... not the answers or reasons I was looking for, but if the +Resistance stacks last for 20s instead of 10s then having an attack chain that cycles within ~8s or so turns into a pretty good compromise, although a 6.7s rotation time would obviously be ideal. However, that gets to be hard to achieve without putting Hasten into the build (which COULD be done by dropping either Vengeance or Victory Rush). Still, that's about 3 layers deep in meta of build strategizing at that point. But yes ... TREMENDOUSLY HELPFUL @Bopper ... as always. I'll post the update with the swap in ATO slotting sometime tomorrow.

I need something clarified, because I just spotted a potential opportunity that it would be a shame to pass up. Specifically ... swapping the slotting of the Tanker ATO sets between Storm Kick and Dragon's Tail. The reason why I put Might of the Tanker into Storm Kick and and Gauntleted Fist into Dragon's Tail was an effort to help ensure that the lower proc chances for Gauntleted Fist would proc more reliably against multiple $Targets so as to put up the Absorb shield for mitigation. However, I'm now wondering if doing that was a mistake. I just ran a mockup of the differences between swapping the sets around and got the following results. Original: Reversed Slotting: Here's the real quandry that I've got regarding this deciding which option is superior ... and I need some clarification to complete the decision on this. Might of the Tanker has a higher probability to proc in Dragon's Tail than it does in Storm Kick ... 30.3-43.3% vs 26-36.5% pre-Superior and 37.3% vs 32% when Superior ... meaning that when chasing Resistance buffing, putting Might of the Tanker into Dragon's Tail is CLEARLY the superior choice! However, this begs the question of how many procs per activation can be achieved when Might of the Tanker is slotted into a PBAoE attack like Dragon's Tail? Does it work like Force Feedback where you can only get one proc per power activation? Or is it a case where because the procs can stack that you can net more than one proc per activation in an AoE power like Dragon's Tail (given enough $Targets to roll enough proc chances against)? Might of the Tanker stacks up to 3x ... and with the original slotting of putting it into Storm Kick, it is exceedingly unlikely that 3 stacks of the proc will ever occur (particularly when used in attack chains that last 8-9 seconds per rotation!). At best, 1-2 stacks of the +Resist (All) proc would happen, and the time duration in which the 2x proc stacking would be happening would be rather fleeting (~2 seconds at most) just because of the "shape" of the attack chain(s) involved. However, if Might of the Tanker can proc more than once per power activation, putting it into Dragon's Tail instead becomes the brain dead obvious choice since that's just about the ONLY way that this build is going to be able to "saturate" the concurrent 3x proc potential ... which would be a non-trivial amount of +Resistance added, as @Bopper has been at pains to point out in the context of use of Rune of Protection. Except here we're talking about adding +5-10% (non-Superior) to +6.7-13.4% (Superior) Resistance (All) relative to the alternative slotting in Storm Kick with a LOT higher uptime than what I'd ever be able to achieve out of allocating more slots to Rune of Protection (I'm thinking closer to 100% uptime in $Target Rich Environments when using Dragon's Tail for multi-procs) ... which is MORE additional Resistance than I'd be able to get out of adding slots to Rune of Protection with a 34% uptime. Keep in mind that Might of the Tanker offers +5% (non-Superior) or +6.7% (Superior) Resistance vs All for 10 seconds and can stack up to 3x ... meaning as much as +15% or +20.1% Resistance when fully saturated. THAT is truly non-trivial quantities of additional +Resistance for a Super Reflexes Tanker! The flipside to this would be that the chance to proc the +Absorb shield in Gauntleted Fist would be dramatically reduced ... by about HALF and would in fact proc relatively rarely compared to having Gauntleted Fist slotted into Dragon's Tail. However, if the +Absorb only lasts for 15 seconds, that's essentially enough time for at least 4 proc chances per Absorb duration when using the Single Target without Eagle's Claw attack rotation, in which Storm Kick gets used every ~4 seconds. Doing the math, in the worst case scenario (Level 50 non-Superior) with a 12.79% proc chance per attack, 4 attacks sums up to a 42.16% overall chance that one of those attacks will successfully proc the Absorb shield ... while in the best case scenario (Superior) with a 18.83% proc chance per attack, 4 attacks sums up to a 56.60% overall chance that one of those attacks will successfully proc the Absorb shield ... which isn't as terrible as it might have seemed from the start. And ideally, of course, relatively few hits are going to be "leaking" through your Defenses so each Absorb proc will be relatively "sturdy" in that regard. But compounding all of those factors ... and I'm not sure if this is the way that it works ... is ... Is damage dealt to an Absorb shield factoring in your Resistances before applying damage to the Absorb shield? Because if so ... then obviously the way to magnify/maximize the amount of damage that an Absorb shield can "soak" for you is to increase your Resistances ... which is exactly what this whole slot swapping thing would do. Being able to add up to +15% to +20.1% Resistance vs All just by using Dragon's Tail would, in multiple contexts, EASILY balance out the reduced proc chances per attack (but greater opportunities over the same time span) of swapping the ATO sets between Storm Kick and Dragon's Tail, in addition to all of the increased damage reduction going on when the Absorb shield either hasn't procced or was ablated away by a big hit. And at THAT point you're starting to look at nudging towards Resistances close enough to the hardcap for a Tanker that you can close the gap to 90% with Resistance Inspirations ... on a Super Reflexes/Martial Arts Tanker ... who is good at Leadership blended with a pinch of Sorcery. So ... anyone have any answers before I update the build posts yet again? And yes, @Bopper is again at fault for me even contemplating this entire line of thinking. I'd just like to know if the presumptions I've been making here are borne out by how the game actually functions game mechanically, if that's already known.

Titan/Ninjitsu Scrapper. You can thank me later (if you ever find me) ...

The point of increasing returns and the "breakpoint" thereof. While it's true that every +1% is more valuable than the one before it when it comes to Resistances (until reaching the cap), it's only when you start getting "close" to the cap that small additions start getting magnified rather dramatically. Where that "breakpoint" lies is going to be a subjective value judgement that each Player will need to answer for themselves. In my case, when it comes to maximizing Resistances, I put a lower priority on that goal than on maximizing +Max HP and +Regeneration (and gains to endurance recovery to sustain longevity in continuous combat). Because of that I place higher value on having Stamina ALWAYS providing increases to endurance recovery, Max HP and Regeneration than I do on increasing Resistances instead ... because in this case it's a direct tradeoff between the two. Well ... that's the plan, anyway ... Already dispensed with in the v3.0.1 update. It certainly would be at Exemplar Levels 39+ ... but is relatively useless during Exemplar Levels 1-38. So yes, when it can be used the increase in uptime is "NICE" ... but it is by no means "NECESSARY" nor is it something that will be applicable over a broad range of Exemplar Levels. So the 34.91% uptime sounds great ... except when the uptime is 0% during Exemplar Levels 1-38. Now, granted, you'll still get set bonuses at (most of) those lower Exemplar Levels using attuned enhancements, but you won't have access to the buffing of the click power. So it's a matter of whether the build can "afford" to short slot Rune of Protection or not. If I had 3 more slots to "burn" in the build, I'd definitely be wanting to put them into Rune of Protection rather than into Thunder Kick (for example) ... but since I don't have the extra 3 slots to do that, I don't. I don't have any references to testing it, but last time I heard the Shield Wall proc functions as a global set bonus that is always on, regardless of whether the power it's slotted into has been used or not. Should be pretty trivial to check on the test server though. I know that Kismet's proc is "always on" regardless of power usage, so if that's an issue it's an easy matter to swap the Shield Wall proc and the Kismet proc in the build.

Taunt is the difference being able to control aggro in a PBAoE and being able to control aggro in a Target AoE. It's also been known to make runners run back to you ... which can sometimes be helpful. I personally like Taunt as a One Slot Wonder™ power (put a Perfect Zinger proc in it) that you can use to pad out attack chains that would otherwise have a gap at zero endurance cost (spoiler alert, Taunts cost zero endurance). That then helps you stay active without costing you additional endurance while simultaneously making it harder for others to peel stuff off you. But the real gravy is the ability to draw aggro from a distance while simultaneously debuffing their Range so they HAVE TO run over to you in order to do anything. Makes pulling a LOT easier to do (when you need to do it).

Update to v3.0.1 posted. If you downloaded the .mxd file previously, I recommend you redownload and overwrite the previous save. Credit for the changes and updates go to @Caulderone and @Bopper for providing excellent feedback!

I'm in the midst of posting the update to the builds right now, actually ... and yes, 2 out of 3 was the path taken in this case because it represented the best overall compromise between competing values on returns. In this case, the exchange (in Cobra Strike and Crippling Axe Kick) amounted to a small loss of damage production and mez duration for a rather dramatic increase in endurance longevity for all attack chain options (up to exceeding the downtime on Victory Rush for the PBAoE without Eagle's Claw rotation, which is just nuts). That then makes "true steamroller" performance possible in which you can stretch Victory Rush between boss defeats so as to refuel endurance while continuing to fight continuously. Ought to make a rather nice difference on Mothership Raids. 😎 I actually went in a different direction once I got back into the build planner for a second look. I didn't want to lose the +Max HP bonus since that would also propagate down into Regeneration throughput, but that was the 4-slot bonus of Power Transfer and I didn't want to lose it. But then I took a second look at Power Shifter and noticed that the 3-slot bonus there was the exact same as the 4-slot bonus in Power Transfer! And on top of that, 4 out of the 6 slots in Power Transfer have no Endurance Modification in them (the proc doesn't)! So then ... (now) obviously ... the thing to do was to blend 3 slots of Power Shifter with 3 slots of Power Transfer like this ... The increase in Endurance recovery was ... DRAMATIC ... to put it mildly. Like on the order of an average of +0.48 per second(!) just from that one change alone. 🤯 And that was only the leveling build ... The Superior Attuned 50 version saw an even larger gain (+0.07 additional gain while toggle costs dropped by -0.08 relative to the leveling build for another net +0.15/s increase). And with THAT kind of a return on investment, I'm willing to say that the endurance issue(s) for this build are pretty substantially SOLVED. 😎 True, but when an attack rotation consumes 37.66 endurance every 9.24s while running toggles that cost 1.18/s for a total of 48.56 total, that 2.5% endurance reduction results in a 36.74 endurance cost with toggles that cost 1.15/s for a total of 47.37 total ... for a grand total savings of 1.19 endurance over those 9.24s, which amortizes out to 0.13/s net reduction (and I'm doing quick and dirty napkin math here that's probably off the mark by a little bit). By contrast, I can net more than that (+0.2/s) simply by keeping all those slots in Stamina and doing the 3x3 slotting of Performance Shifter and Power Transfer you can see above (and the gain is even stronger with Attuned 50 enhancement levels. Granted, the Rune of Protection slotting you advocated for would offer greater global Resistances than sticking to the Stamina solution, but that's the tradeoff ... greater endurance recovery or greater restistances. Of the two, I'm thinking that the higher endurance recovery yields better value and return on investment than the alternative. Let's just say you managed to talk me out of trying to 6 slot Power Transfer into Stamina, shall we? 😉 Only at the expense of moving Leadership toggles later in the build. All things considered, I place a higher value on Leadership toggles early (since that benefits everyone I team and solo with) rather than on Sorcery clicks (which only benefit 1 PC at a time each). If my resistances were over 50% before stacking Rune of Protection on top, the mental calculus of value would change (not to mention over 75% resistances). But on a Super Reflexes Tanker there just isn't that much resistance to build upon natively (even with Reactive Defenses stacking on native Super Reflexes resistances at low HP remaining). To my eyes, that 3.5% gain might as well be a rounding error in the overall context of the build, especially when I've run out of options to reach for it. Remember, I look at Rune of Protection primarily as a set mule rather than as a power to be put on autofire for maximum uptime. It's nice to have available for helping to soak a nasty alpha strike from time to time, but beyond that the value I put on it as a click buff is actually pretty marginal in the overall context of this build. Other Players are welcome to come to their own conclusions and modify the build accordingly to match their preferences, of course.

So is Rune of Protection ... /em significant look

Well, I was more concerned with functionality than with pricing. But that certainly is a factor (at some point along the way, albeit not one in perpetuity). So now that I've spent a few hours mulling over options in the build planner and reviewing everything in its proper context ... I've come to the conclusion that shortchanging mez durations in exchange for better endurance reduction may be an option that some people will want to take, but it's not for me. The context for this decision comes in the form of attack chains that are ~8-9 seconds or so long where in order to ensure double stacking of durations you need ~19s on Cobra Strike and Crippling Axe Kick in order to double stack them permanently within the limits of the attack rotations. So, to be specific ... the slotting you provided "worked" for Crippling Axe Kick within the broader/larger context of the build overall and how the attack chains are "formed" (or "shaped" if you prefer) since the reduction from a 20.6s down to a 19.8s duration is an "acceptable" loss of duration. However, the reduction from 20.6s down to 16.9s for Cobra Strike was simply unacceptable in terms of double stacking perma coverage, so the only way to manage that one would be to put the Purple 50 Stun IO in Cobra Strike rather than into Eagle's Claw. Keeping Eagle's Claw at an 8s duration (or higher) is the other "imperative" that I (personally) have for the 100% chance to mag 3 Stun duration on Eagle's Claw, which then combines with a 51% chance for a mag 2 Stun duration from the Pounding Slugfest proc (and then "Bob's your uncle" so to speak) so as to not shortchange on the Stun factor. The idea here is to be as thorough as possible in stacking the Stuns both as deeply (mag) as well as long (duration) as necessary/possible. So in that context, depending on pricing, I can envision scenarios in which your alternate slotting of a Purple 50+5 set IO (Stun or Immobilize) in Cobra Strike and Crippling Axe Kick along with a 50+5 Crushing Impact Accuracy/Damage/Endurance set IO makes good sense ... but for Eagle's Claw the superior choice is to just keep the HOs in place for the over 8s Stun duration.

And thus the cross-pollinating begins! Cannibalizing slots from Stamina is possible, particularly if you're willing to sacrifice set bonuses from Power Transfer, but I personally wouldn't be willing to go lower than 4 slots in Stamina. Power Transfer - EndMod (attuned) Power Transfer - Chance to Heal Self: Level 21 Performance Shifter - EndMod (attuned) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 21 That is the absolute lowest slotting I'd be willing to go to for this build so as to not sacrifice endurance recovery. The set bonus exchange would also not be pretty ... 6% (0.47 HP/sec) Regeneration 1.35% Max End 35.14 HP (1.88%) HitPoints 9% Enhancement(Accuracy) 7.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime) ... versus ... 6% (0.47 HP/sec) Regeneration 7.5% SpeedJumping, 7.5% JumpHeight, 7.5% SpeedFlying, 7.5% SpeedRunning ... meaning a net loss of -1.35% Max Endurance, -1.88% Max HP, -9% Accuracy and -7.5% Recharge ... all of which are useful to the build in one way or another (although the value of the Accuracy and Recharge bonuses is debatable/marginal). You then compound that with the fact that yes, while Rune of Protection is up you get a little more Resistance vs All (9.25-11.5%) ... but that's only while Rune of Protection is up. With a ~34% uptime, that equates to an increase of only +3.145-3.91% averaged over time, and the access to that increase in Resistance is only available at Exemplar Levels 39+ ... which is hardly a "majority" of the content you might be exemplaring to play. Join a Manticore Task Force and below and all that extra Resistance potential sitting in Rune of Protection is "lost" to Exemplar Level limitations, meaning that the "uptime" on Rune of Protection becomes significantly less than 34%. Meanwhile, you've lost all of those set bonuses that had previously been parked in Power Transfer slotted into Stamina that could have been active all the way down to Level 16 (Positron Part Two). At most, I'd agree that swapping 2 slots from Power Transfer (Damage/Recharge and Damage/Accuracy/Recharge/Endurance) to Performance Shifter (EndMod and proc) for better endurance gain would be worth losing the Accuracy and Recharge global set bonuses for ... but doing that doesn't free up any slots to use on Rune of Protection. However, since I'm primarily using Rune of Protection as an "always on" global bonus mule rather than as a "god mode" power that needs to be used as often as possible, the value I'm placing in actually clicking Rune of Protection is actually relatively low. This pushes Rune of Protection into the "good to have but only nice to click" category of usage priorities. That's because even if the power is deactivated due to Exemplar Levels, the enhancements slotted into it continue to function (+Defense, +Max HP) even while the power itself is inaccessible because those enhancements do not require Rune of Protection to be actively clicked in order to yield benefits ... while the +Resistance value of the power DOES require the power to be clicked in order to derive that benefit. So in that regard, I'm building for the "broader range" of Exemplar Level possibilities than reaching for the maximum performance at Level 50 (or in this case, 39+). It's a compromise, but it's one that I'm willing to make. This is one of those times where I consider the tradeoffs necessary to make this adjustment simply not worth the opportunity costs. This is a good recommendation and makes plenty of sense. I'll have to implement this one. Look forward to the build posts being tweaked/updated. And THIS is why I post these things, because sometimes people spot things that I've overlooked and make things that much better with their observations/perceptions. I don't want the Fighting pool. Adding Tough will just make the net endurance recovery situation even more untenable. I'm already pushing endurance recovery capacity as it is. I also object to spending a power pick I'm not going to be using (Boxing or Kick) in order to reach for Tough. As for the Winter Slow Resistance IO, that can be put in Mystic Flight. I'm just so accustomed to putting End/Fly/Jump/Run HOs into Swift (and Quickness) that it's basically reflex now. It was important to do that when I had Hover in the build, since Hover did benefit (ever so slightly) from that HO slotting. But like you say, Mystic Flight hits the speed cap pretty hard (absent Afterburner) so the extra buffing to Flight speed is essentially wasted. Swapping over to 50+5 common Run IOs makes sense in this context, even if the speed increase gained is so marginal as to feel like a rounding error. Still, it means over 70 mph Run speed with Ninja Run plus Surge or Slide (instead of Sprint), which is "good enough" in this context. So that's another worthwhile change. Well once you put it THAT way ... a difference of 1 endurance per 10 seconds doesn't sound like THAT much of an expense for the Winter Slow Resistance option. I'm going to have to look at your changes in the build planner to make a judgement, which will require logging out of the forums here and dual booting over to access the info (which is annoying). However, one thing that I do very much want to emphasize is that I put a lot of value into the mez durations of Cobra Strike, Crippling Axe Kick and Eagle's Claw simply because I know from experience how useful it is to be able to perma double stack those effects on Bosses really is in terms of being able to neutralize them until they're defeated. That factor is one of the cornerstones of the active mitigation measures the build needs in order to stay safe(r) while engaging. Also, you want to have "margin" on how long those durations last because of the length of time it will take to repeat the attack chain(s) those powers get used in. In other words, they aren't going to necessarily get used again instantly upon recharge, so having a duration that is more than double the recharge time allows for that margin of error/inefficiency forced by the "shaping" of the attack chain(s) the powers get used in. In other words, usage context matters a very great deal here ... and in practice it can be a difference as meaningful as perma-Domination YES versus perma-Domination NO as far as lockdown potential is concerned.

Except, we've got multiple people in this thread saying that trash melts in seconds, so the speed up of -Resistance "doesn't matter" there since they get wiped out too fast (in team play). Yes there's a lot of trash to take out, but that trash gets taken out quickly (per unit of trash). Sure, there's a LOT of trash to take out, but individually few of them last long at all ... especially if you've got a team with you. Trash may comprise 80% of what you defeat, but trash won't be consuming 80% of the time you're fighting.

DE describes my approach to pizza. Devour Everything.

Again, you can resort to "share weights" for that. Each shared world zone that enemy appears in for that level bracket adds +1 share to their weighting. If the group appears in instanced mission content, give them an additional +1 share. So in the blueside 1-10 bracket, Circle of Thorns appears in King's Row, The Hollows and Perez Park (+3 shares) and also appear in mission instances (+1 share). In the blueside 11-20 bracket, the Igneous appear only in The Hollows (+1 share) and mission instances (+1 share) including the Cavern of Transcendence trial. Just that right there shows that the Circle of Thorns is MUCH more common in the 1-10 bracket than the Igenous are in the 11-20 bracket, and the relative weighting reflects that (kinda).

Another way to think of it is that at early levels, yes there are different damage types, but the capacity of a build to defend/resist those damage types is quite limited, so there's a pretty strong leveling factor going on early on. Compare and contrast that to how much of a differential there is in the 41+ game where builds are either finished or nearing being finished and the capacities of PCs to influence how much damage they're taking from hits is VASTLY greater than it was in the early game. Point being that you'd want to "weight" the damage type distribution of the early game brackets much more lightly than the later stages as PCs grow and develop. If you want to think of it in terms of "shares" of weighting, you could just add +1 the "share weight" of each bracket so as to yield a relative weighting like so: 1-10 = 1 share each 11-20 = 2 shares each 21-30 = 3 shares each 31-40 = 4 shares each 41-50 = 5 shares each 51+ = 6 shares each You then determine the "spread" of damage types within each bracket and then multiply that prevalence by the "share weight" progression for that bracket so as to arrive at a loose sense of how common/concerning damage types are overall along with WHEN the balance shifts around in different level brackets.

200X The PCs. A foreign "publisher" of games who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty. Some of them might be human, while others would no doubt be CGI.