Without_Pause

I'm guessing a perma Dom isn't needing to build up. They can have Sleep cranked and ready from the start.

Per recent data, Regen is still popular. If nothing else, it is popular for PvP.

Depends on the blaster though. I have a Water/temp/cold and even without Incarnate abilities or IO sets yet that's a rather rock solid build.

You'll need more than Short Circuit, Just going to restate what I said above. I was running on my Elec/kin controller and got nowhere on runs against a number of AVs. I don't have Power Boost, but even on my defender version back in the day with Power Boost, it was hit and miss.

Have you soloed them on lower settings? I find certain AVs a slog to take down even on teams with a high enough difficulty setting.

+1. I ran an En blaster into the 40s. KB wasn't issue with common IOs and Hover. Nova has been a bane to my Kins though.

In terms of builds I got to 50 and more so the ones I care enough to play afterwards. Water/temp blaster - 14 Claws/wp brute - 71 Plant/storm controller - 13 Dark/dark controller - 3 Rad/shield scrapper - 64 StJ/ea stalker - 7 Sonic/sonic defenders being 14 is surprising to me.

One of the factors in certain sets being popular is for PvP so that is my guess as well. Farming and theme are the two biggest. Elec/shield for how well those two work together. I haven't looked at some sets to see if they had gone up or down, but I did see Rad/shield scrappers go down 15+ spots in popularity despite how well that build has worked for me.

You are asking for something which would only happen if the game was official.

Kat/willpower in either scrapper or brute form. Willpower is a defense set for newbies and Katana has a utility attack which adds to the character's defense. Broad Sword would also work but is slower. Claws is also awesome. Street Justice might be my favorite, but not as newbie friendly and honestly better as a stalker. Kat/wp is pretty much "I don't want to think too hard." War Mace would also be good.

Squishy builds with a damage aura. Yes, it works in the end when you are 50 and can pimp out the build. The rid to 50 just isn't fun. I'm seriously debating if my Fire/time controller won't get the axe in the end despite knowing the build as a lot of potential. Slotting a recharge in /shields mez protection, setting it to auto, and still getting mezzed. I'm keeping the build because I like it overall, but it looks like I need more recharge than a level 25 IO which is frustrating.

I don't think one stands out over the other so if DPS is the goal, go scrapper. I'm kind of surprised how well my Rad/shield scrapper is doing.

One issue is defining "work." Even something as bad as Ice/ff controller can be deemed workable depending on the intent.

I feel like Shadow Maul was the only power which needed to be tweaked. The set is already solid.

To be fair, your proof is essentially various in game situations with no real proof of the characters being on equal standing, ie player ability, situational awareness, nor their builds. You certainly imply you used a Water/sr sent who can play at range and somehow stayed alive versus brutes knee deep in the thick of things. Gee, possible capped defense, a heal, and playing at range. I don't even give out cookies for that. I took an En/en blaster to 41 on nothing but common IOs without a death. I guess to me blasters are rather sturdy. Can't you see my proof? 😉 In terms of proof, I prefer actual data like AT damage multiplier, max HP, regen, resistance caps, etc. FYI, I feel like sents are a bit boring but a friend of mine loved his. Now, if they were a bit blast with control. Mmm.

I found sapping an AV on a Elec/kin controller rather difficult. Even on my main which was the defender version back on Live sapping AVs as always hit or miss. Maybe Shock/elec will be better, but I don't have high hopes in the days of +4 content.

The first would likely just be having as much IO set data as possible. It's frustrating to have to go in game to find out that a set even exists. It might be somewhere on this site, but I don't want to go looking at patch notes as well.

If I were part of the HC team, I would make sure there was an active archive of game data around. It feels like a misstep to not have it already. I do software(web) development, but I'm also working on getting married so any attempt by me would like be next year if I stuck with it, but yeah, ParagonWiki is outdated and it is only going to get more so. I would prefer some sort of site versus a character builder. I might just start dumping data in a local DB and run queries off of it.

With a new IO set coming out and finding stuff already outdated online compared to what is in game, anybody know when any site really is going to start to offer updated data based on what HC actually has?

This. Part of it for me is Sents not having the auras like the other melee versions of the defense sets. They simply aren't an interesting archtype. They are merely safe.

Well, here's a reason to go Dark/elec again.

You didn't factor in containment.

For future reference. I'm not sure I would go soloing AVs with it partly because I don't think it's ST chain is that strong, but I don't know the numbers either. I think it does work will with /elec since you get an additional heal and another damage aura so if you want more orange numbers versus soloing AVs, this is were I would look. I loved my Dark/elec I had on Live and was one of the builds I was going to recreate if CoH ever came back, but oddly enough it never stuck around this time. I may have to create it again some day. Others I would look at are Stone and SS. +recharge and end recovery would be helpful for either.

I more recently in the past few years accepted I was more into superhero lore versus a specific super hero. While I certainly like various heroes, I don't need them. I played the Marvel RPG back in the day and near the end we just started creating characters, grabbing two per player, and having slugfests between two players. Some of my favorite heroes are the ones in my head. The closest I have gotten is taking the idea of Hulk and building it around being faith based versus anger with bio related powers. He could as an example heal someone while taking on the injury and then regen. He uses his powers to achieve various physical feats and more so under the right condition, but he also uses them outside of that doing good works. Closest thing in CoH would be SS/wp brute although I would rather play StJ/wp.

"Hello Mr. Boomstick. I see you have come to obtain the powers of a god." "Yes, I have for I have helped save Paragon over and over again and wish to be granted god like powers so I may further do so against forthcoming threats." "Ah yes. Very noble of you. Let's see here. I now grant you to bring judgement against those who appose you via being able to bring forth extreme amounts of destruction around you." "Well, uh, I'm a blaster so I already have a nuke." "Yes, but now you have two!" "Maybe more defense? A heal. You know, mitigation." "Two nukes! And one from the gods themselves mere mortal." "Yeah actually, instead of two nukes and being a mere mortal how about not so much on the faceplanting while being a blaster with godlike powers?" "Two nukes!" "I'm just a guy with a gun. How do I, uh, now have fire coming out of me?" "By the gods!" [/scene] "Hello Ms Backstabby. I see you have come to obtain the powers of a god." "Cool cool. Yeah, anything to make my life easier 'arresting' the baddies." "I now grant you the ability to summon forth a warwork companion coming from the Paragon's great historical lore as you can now team up and go forth with your tasks at had." "Uh, you know I'm a stalker right? I tend to do a lot of things alone and undetected until it is too late. You know, sneaky sneaky." "Why yes, but now you have someone else to support you and vanquish the evil doers of Paragon as you go about being 'sneaky sneaky.'" "But how is a warwork 'sneaky sneaky?'" "...." [/scene]