Without_Pause

You literally quoted Dark/sr as the build in question.

I'll take actual DDR.

Dark offers a partial heal. I agree with the other aspects to invest in. I default to taking RoP with SR as well. Granted, I tend toward end friendly sets, but I have no real issues with End on my Caws/sr. I play tested a Ice/sr Sent in Beta and my End usage seemed fine there as well, and that's without touching Incarnates although to be honest I don't touch helping with End with Incarnates so far with any SR I have rolled. I would still say for the aspect of ease of play, SR beats out Nin when Nin has things to click on.

So you haven't played /fire then. Fire has the best Trapdoor clear times, is far less resisted, and has no real End issues. Certainly not even in the same ballpark as my WM Brute does.

When did Sents get Shield? 😉 The picks are WP and SR in terms of hands off, and SR is actually worth taking.

Counter point, I did Thermal/fire, and in all honesty while yes, Fire is always Fire, I think it is a disservice to not pick it on a Corr. I ultimately rerolled to a Thermal/sonic as I feel like Sonic is one of the places a Defender wins out. I grabbed my Thermal for a Posi II and there was a Cold on the team. Needless to say health bars rarely moved. It mostly moved on mine due to me always being aggressive and not having my own shields. I know we had someone playing Time as well. I tossed out some occasional targeted heals, but really that was it. I think overall Thermal is fine with its strength as covering any lack of Res on the team. The rest is really just gravy. This is very much a WIP as the build is all of Level 40. It is at least v3, so I have had multiple passes over on it, but by no means is this a final build. It's 100% get it to 50, and then decide. Howling Phoenix v3 - Defender (Thermal Radiation - Sonic Attack).mbd

Time's -Regen is also poor. It is about the only reason to not take it. I have done Time/beam for bit, but I'm tempted to reroll again, or do Time/sonic to help counter the low -Regen. CS also buffs the caster and can be made perma as where SB doesn't. Kin can get it from Siphon Speed, but that's still an additional power needing to be used.

I obviously did Claws, and End usage on that is a cake walk along with super easy to make attack chains, but WM is an absolute opposite. My WM/stone has no issue sucking down all sorts of End but that's also part of Stone using so many toggles. Getting the desired ST/AoE attack chains takes time.

I don't like long animations. I really did enjoy playing my StJ Stalker to 50, and really need to finish off the T4 aspect at some point. While not one of your picks, I would take Savage over Elec due to the better animations. Both do well in AoE, have TP type attacks, and being a Stalker helps their ST damage. I concede Savage has a less desirable damage type.

WM pretty much begs to use EA with it although if you got SS/sr to work, then SS/ea would be even easier.

FYI, I need to update the Claws side of the build, but if one were to use a melee set which is able to skip two attacks along with Taunt, see Savage, then it is a quite easy to Swap in the newer melee set. Changes for Claws would be swapping in purples sets as needed. The biggest one would be Focus with adding the Gladiator's Javelin: Chance for Toxic Damage instead of the Damage IO. Without Remorse - Brute (Claws - Energy Aura).mbd

- 3-way splitting out the UF ATO set is a bit odd. It just gives you a 4% Damage bonus, which isn't as great as one thinks for a Brute. - I also didn't split either ATO set. - The Damage IO in Hecatomb is overkill. - You have some odd stopping points for set bonuses. See Rib Cracker as going back to my first point. You could lose out on 2% Damage and get 16% Regen instead. See Spinning Strike as well. - You also want to check if bonuses are doing much for you. The 6-slotting of Sweeping Cross is giving you extra F/C Def when you are already decently over the soft cap. - Once you get Def soft capped, you want to look for Res. I have a Claws/ea which takes one less attack, so it isn't easy to swap in StJ, but my Res stats for S/L/E/N are 75%, 75%, 56.7%, and 44.8%.

I've enjoyed my DP/martial. Zoom in and PBAoE away.

"He wrote the song The Sounds of Silence." "OMG. He's in Disturbed."

3-slotted LotG would boost Regen and HP. I'm not sure how that would impact Res. If Healing Flames, which as you have pointed out recharges in 14 seconds, alone isn't covering healing then there are problems elsewhere which need to be fixed. I have a Dark/sr Scrapper, and I only slot Siphon Life with 1 Heal. To add, I have a Dark/elec Brute who isn't planning on slotting any Heal in Siphon Life.

Are you the one who is giving him the currency to afford this build? Level 53 HOs aren't cheap. The HO in Assault gives less End Reduc than a simple Level 50 common End Reduc IO. The Damage aspect isn't boosted. Again, I'm not even sure you are getting any added Damage from the HO in Molten Embrace, but I'm not sure on that since you can't slot it for Damage directly. I'm not really sure the bonuses from Clouded Senses is really worth it in Gloom. Also, fast recharging powers will proc less. You are only really getting mule like set bonuses from Aegis in Healing Flames. I think I would rather load up on more Healing as Healing Flames is a significate part of your mitigation. Life Drain should be slotted for Damage. You have enough Healing elsewhere. Plus, the procs are in a ST attack, so there's not that much of a benefit in them. I mean, a chance for more End when you already have Consume? Speaking of which, I would be tempted to slot it for Damage versus End Mod. I would stick a ToHit/End in Tactics and then 3-lot Weave with LotG.

Or just flagged the Critic's Choice missions as earning normal rewards.

To be fair, the argument isn't simply Crits versus 15% more Def. The issues are lower Res cap, no Taunt aura, damage aura doesn't Crit as where Brutes add in Fury to boost it, and I find FA to be one of the weakest armors in the game, and then you stick it on a Scrapper. Again, you have your idea and are happy with it. If you find something you love, go for it. I would at least try out FA on a Brute at some point just to see.

The game hasn't caught up with the current Incarnate system. Adding any additional slot due to it seems a bit much.

The issue with doing AE missions for the sake of leveling and not farming is the rewards have been peeled back due to farming so leveling is slower. I still find going through regular missions at a decent diff setting while solo is more tolerable than any farming. I'll take soloing RWZ, Cim, or DA at +2-+4 and x8 with the Banker day job accolade over repeated farming. I've gotten a Vet level from doing a single rather difficult Cim mission which is roughly what I get from doing a single tunnel mission with EBs. To be fair, the Cim mission also had multiple EBs. DA with its ability to generate such an ease for builds to solo at +4x8 is a virtual goldmine. Red side also doesn't lack content to challenge players.

It can be a nice source of extra AoE damage when you add in the Control Incarnate since it doubles containment damage.

HT's -Regen FTW.

AH isn't as great as it used to be, but there are things out there which can be flipped for still decent profit. I have a pre-Page 5 build for my Rad/fire and I don't really ever use my heal on a map which I try to position myself to take on as much as I can all the time. The map has EBs in it as well. It's a Page 5 road tunnel map by Xtomic. A map without EBs will be faster, but I prefer doing fewer runs.

I'm rather ignorant about the minis and don't really ever see them on teams. So take that for what it is worth.

I pop a respec at 27 and 50. 27 is when you essentially can slot the best of the lower level IOs. You get 5 respecs as you level, so I have done more than just the two.