Sanguinesun

Without an explanation/context of your goals with that build, giving you advice becomes more vague and less applicable potentially to what your goals specifically are.

I dont think any necessarily are squandered if people end up getting together from lfg callouts for em to an extent, but with that said any events like those that spawn in vil or gold side locations are going to most of the time be ignored simply because most of the player population stick to the hero side as a whole. Of course when the MapServe April event occurs then people flock to chasing that event across the entirety of the server no matter the zone but that's a different situation obviously. If this is some sort of indirect line to have devs consider revamping the spawn system to more constantly have them spawning in specific zones, I think the pace is fine as it is.

So mutually assured destruction then.

A better question, why are you friend stalking GM's?

Statesman should stay dead and not just for story/lore reasons but also due to his association with Jack Emmert who deserves to not have more recognition through such a rez to his signature toon representing himself.

.... Stop just skim reading both that thread that was linked and people's responses here, use mids to actually see what the build for Rad/Ma in that linked thread has and you would've already answered your question. Multiple times now you've admitted that you're not carefully going through the information provided. So while, I covered Rad/Ma in my reply already in this thread and I believe the linked one also discussed it regarding Rad/MA, I'll try to speak to it a little more succinctly. Keep in mind this is in relation to Active farmer builds of course. 1. When you farm with an optimally built toon you need of course AoE damage so that you're distributing as much damage as possible to as many toons as possible so that you clear as quickly as possible. 2. You also want to have at least one decent single target damage attack to help mop up stragglers or Elite bosses(if you opt for a map with EBs in it). 3. You will also likely have a couple of other attacks that allow you to fill in the attack chain(so you're constantly doing damage. 4. You'll want to have very efficient endurance management. This is because you want to be attacking as much as possible without any down time from endurance issues or worse getting detoggled. It can still of course happen on the best of builds but setting it to where it happens much more rarely is a good goal. To achieve this, builds will in general have a solid endurance recovery to endurance use base (toggles etc) and as well have perhaps some decent amount of enduance reduction in the case of globally or within the IO sets for those specific powers etc. 5. You want in many builds(not all) to have high +recharge to be at or just under the +300% recharge cap. This is so your best attacks can be faster of course to recharge but also any other utility powers but there has to be a balance of course so that you're not drawing upon issues from Point 4. 6. And other factors. ------ Had you actually looked at the Rad/Ma build in mids(seemingly you didnt or "skimmed" as you seem to do) you'd have understood what it brings to the table in 1-6 and why there is favoring given to it. 1. No, it doesnt have 1 AoE attack in that build. It has 7. Yes 7: -Dragon Tail(your primar bread and butter up often aoe) -Ground Zero -Radiation Therapy -Electrifying Fences -Ball Lightning -Static Discharge(cone) -Cross punch You're of course not going to utilize all 7 all or some of the time actually as some are used as mules for set bonuses. But there is enough there for a relatively if not constant AoE attack chain for large mob group needs. However again the main semi constant one you use is Dragon Tail because it is doing 350 damage every 3.5 seconds in conjunction with rotating some of the other AoEs with short or long recharges into the fray. When Focus chi is up, that jumps to 450 damage plus the other higher damage capabiltiies of other powers for 10s with a 22 sec cool down. (thus up fairly often). This is also of course not necessarily factoring assault radial embodiment's double damage chances. 2. You have 3 single target abilities that because they fire off so quickly and recharge so quickly mean you're capable of doing roughly 520+ damage in a single target rotation less than every 3 seconds if you include mu lightning) You could also be rotating in instead cross punch with it for a smidge less damage but getting its +recharge benefit needs. One could rotate between other combinations Sk Mu Bx or Sk Mu Br or other mixes between but fast activation and recharge attacks rotated between with optimal damage is what's the goal though there may be a call for other utilities some of the powers give. 3. As mentioned above, some of the 7 AoE options wouldn't always be necessarily used but could be used for some situations as some are ranged and can be used to pull groups of mobs to you vs you going to them to better maximize time to clear efficiency(this varies on player playstyle and maps too). 4. The Rad/Ma build in the linked thread has a Recovery to base endurance consumption ratio of 4.1/s to 1.67/s Additionally it has: Ageless core epiphany Radiation Therapy (which also does aoe damage in one's potential rotation since its 400+ dam to 16 targets up every 15 secs) It has a small endurance redux on attacks as well through both global and individual attack's sets. Overall it is a very managable endurance situation with the set and can also be supplemented with blue insp or other means too if desired. 5. The build as the +300% cap as long as dragon tail's +rech procs (2ppm 33% (chance on hit)) and cross punch are used. Without Dragon tail or cross punch its like +198% so still very solid. So in the least ideal rotation situations, its for example a 5s recharge on using Dragon tail vs 3.5 seconds and other powers are between a 1-5 sec difference. That seems small but given the plethora of attacks available, it still doesnt interrupt attack chains that can be used(ie just adding another 1-2 attacks from the choices in those cases) most of the time, that's not going to be an issue though. 6. Other factors that the set brinds to the table can include: -Storm Kick giving you a 10% defenses boost when used. - rad's aoe damage abilities giving you+regen/heal and many other things if you read the power descriptions. -------------------------------- So with all that said and knowing that you're really not paying attention significantly to what the sets nor that thread entails with regards to farming discussions, at this point and seem rather skeptical of what people are explaining perhaps too, I think its time for you to then actually take those builds to the Beta test server, load them for free(as you can build anything on the beta test server and try it out, including AE farm missions). Beta server lets you insta level to 50, give yourself all the incarnate stuff and accolades instantly, and lets you slot and get all the sets freely too. So there is no excuse then for you to not test things for yourself and find what best suits you and your play style. They're essentially just not taking the time to actually look at the builds meaningfully nor reading the details on the powers meaningfully. At this point its better for them to take the time to do so and test for themselves.

You're encroaching into the "wants a toon that does it all" frame of thinking, which can be a pitfall because not all missions/tf's etc are the same and +4/8 doesnt also denote the efficiency in time with which you clear either. You can build a fortunata to clear starred ITFs for example but its going to be a pretty significiant time investment(hours likely) and more. For the moment, Im going to simply assume you're not looking to participate in soloing the higher end challenging content and are just casually looking then for something that you get by with. Most people play the end game content not with friends but in pugs arguably as well so that's not something to worry on for the casual content either. Many also even on their 50's just do any of the 1-49 content similarly as you well know. Every power set on a tank as strengths and weaknesses. In team/league typical casual content though if you've built half decently, then anything is fine. Literally. The team brings your heals buffs etc to the table to supplement any holes you may have. Soloing though can be a different story but again clearing can be done, just having to take considerable time and even then, remember if you do content with AV's, not every AV is built the same and even well built toons can on 1 av take em down easily while another could be a rage quit. So if you want to gen pop it, anything is fine, just suit up with what you like. But if you want to start focusing on specific more challenges, you'll need to build for those challenges specifically of you want to be efficient/optimal.

A tanker's are going to clear more inf/hour now than brutes with optimal builds. This has been discussed (as per the link provided by tyger. Brutes secondarily with their optimal builds will be fine but still not have the same inf/hour production. This is due to the changes that were implemented by HC years ago giving tanks' aoes the capability to hit more targets (brutes capped at 10 while some aoes on tanks can go to 16), an increase slightly to their damage, brutes receiving a fury reduction, tanks easier to build resistance/def for due to the AT and some other factors. So while a brute still may hit for a bit more damage, the tank is capable of hitting considerably more targets and thus inflicting considerable more damage to more mobs because of it. Farming is a maths game. Again though, we're talking min/max considerations. Also matching your choice of build/AT properly to a farm map is important as not all maps are created with your build choice nor your play style in mind. This is also why there are so many different farm maps on the AE. Mobs using cold tend to also have smashing usually in their attacks so you cant really build only for cold. Also as mentioned the -slow will be a pain in the arse since your goals in a farm are to clear it as fast as possible for inf/hour. Typical farms are either Smashing/Lethal or fire as mobs can be designed in the AE to do damage only for those damage types. You build your damage resistance around the damage type of the mobs of the farm. Fire/ on tanks is extremely easy to cap to 90 allowing then for one to work on damage and even defense as well. Rad/ on tanks for S/L because not only does it easily cap S/L but it also has lots of healing/regen/recovery capabilities, 2 multi tasking AOEs(with the increased 16 targets for Tank etc), etc. Before the changes years ago, Rad/Fire brutes were the most optimal due to not just the 2 auras for damage but also that rad gives extra splash damage(albeit minor but every little bit helps) from contamination procing. Spines/Fire was just a smidge typically lower in inf/hour but due to the secondary effects with spines, made it a little more survivable(ie the -recharge/slow from spines attacks). But again we're talking very minimal differences so it boiled down to play style / someone choosing out of aesthetics reasons etc. People (as you can see in the link above) for S/L go for Rad/MA tanks for Active farming (remember there's also afk farming) because they can shoot off plenty of high target AoE's and have 1 shorter AoE (dragon tail) they can fire off ever 3 seconds or so constantly depending on how much+recharge they've layered in the build to the +300% cap. However, people use Rad/fire(as tanks get another aoe that brutes dont have) Rad/Staff Rad/Axe(lots of aoe but heavy on end unless you build properly) Rad/spines etc etc. Also there are other s/l sets easy to also cap s/l on that some also go with instead. On the fire side, Fire/ on a tank paired with /rad /spines /axe /fire and others are just as mentioned above. But clearing times will vary but fire/rad still tends to be the more optimal in a min/max consideration. All in all, read carefully that linked thread and understand why/how you build both the toon and the map to match your needs. It can farm, but it will take more effort to build properly for and be less optimal overall for infl/hour clearing. Rad has similar tools but with better optimization for farming really. Again many different paths up the mountain but some paths are easier to use and more efficiently in getting to the summit. As for AFK farming, again, read the linked thread and understand why Elec/ is used for that more optimally. Again its not the only one people have used (stone for example used to be used alot for AFK farming too by some). ------------------------------------ In summary, read the linked farming guide thread. ------------------------------------

Thought you were supposed to be moving on....

Makes a contentious thread intentionally. Debate and more pot-stirring continues. Eventually gets veteran posters tired of it to start posting meme pics/gifs for the purposes of attracting a moderator to lock it for it having devolved. Must be the middle of the week again...

That looks like some sort of defense related Icon that sometimes circles around a toon visually for the player. If you had a power etc active that may have generated that effect, then its possible when you went into the costume window there, that it is just fleeting render artifact bug being seen.

Essentially this is a rather weak build due to your hyper focus on desires for moving quickly in granite in the way your picks of powers, slotting, and more. While you have an attack chain, I'd not even call it scratches in terms of damage but more puffs of air really. You're severely overslotted in damage resistances for some types. Obviously while you have manageable basic end use to basic end rec, due to your necessity for so many attacks for your chain you're still going to end up needing to use alot of endurance. Basically in your quest to circumvent the intentionally implemented downsides to using granite, you've made a build that lacks much else in effectivity. I suggest you run it through typical missions and see how long it takes you to complete them solo on the beta test server as well as other potential issues you may discover from what you've built there. Additionally, if you've not looked into it, I believe Sovena has some different non granite builds that when you compare them, you may begin to see how more effective builds for stone can be done.

The 5 cap As I always ask, what specifically are your intended goals for this tank? Goals really define how to build a toon.

Kins had it worse.

Lots factor for people's choices for AE maps for farming(as maps you've cited outside of AE are also in the AE of course). Alot of that has to do with individual AT/powerset/playstyle considerations. 1. The way you create the mobs for the map: powers given(as there is some variation), EB maps or just up to boss only(some believing that their version is more exp per hour overall with faster clears while others based on their recipe of things prefer EBs) 2. Whether you prefer long maps (Dreck's map is arguably the longest/largest) battlemaiden, circus etc as pointed out. Others prefer short fast clears (like meteor) etc. 3. Terrains. Some prefer very flat, some dont mind the junk or other objects, containers, corridors, tunnels, etc as they prefer the funneling/herding aspects of them. 4. Soloing or not, powers chosen, power sets chosen etc. There's a lot of variation on people's builds and their playstyles to the point that it affects influence/hour. Remember you share everything distributed between each person on a farm team of course. 5. Active farming vs AFK farming. Those also shape map and other choices. And more. This is why mileage varies so much in these sorts of threads. As for none AE maps(lets call them missions), due to changes over the years due to mob groups revamps posing challenges(lets just call them for what they're intended to be: spiked speed bumps) and making their exp per hour less efficient. The viability for infl/hour is less optimal than AE due to a host of factors. So all in all, if you're chasing the efficiency in the math, AE. If one is contrarian, bored, or just doesnt like AE, then almost anything one wishes to run as influence is going to be earned appropriate to your level/team regardless of the mission you choose. Only variations will be some things related to rewards(merits(or not) recipe drops, aethers, etc.

You'd be more apt to tell them yourself on here(as all 3 of them post/have HC accounts and one is on the HC player council) or post here on HC or, as most do, simply use discord. Issues do exist with the program but I tend to only report my issues when they occur and not act as a proxy for others who have reticence to use discord or the like.

Toggles have an endurance numeric associated with them. A fee if you will as you already likely understand. Said fee is exacted at specific timed intervals of that toggle. Your recovery naturally(or stamina etc enhanced) then also has a timed deposit that it enables. Your typical attacks or other end usage powers that arent toggles all have their own separate end numerical values that those end fees are exacted from your end pool (bar). This then becomes a recipe, depending on your actions that will cause all or only certain toggles to detoggle. This then is further compounded mathematically by factors from mobs: end drain and recovery debuffing. This is why it is, on the surface, rather difficult for the typical player on the fly to account for the variables that cause XYZ toggles to drop and others to not or for all to drop.

It is going to depend on how you've built your farmer. If you've built well for for your res and def etc already then the best damage oriented alpha would be a logical choice. However if you still have/need a reliance on some other deficit in the build due, then you may have to make other choices. People for example sometimes make builds strongly focused on damage, but then neglect endurance needs, acc, and more. Its always about the recipe, not one specific ingredient.

Indeed. with +recharge cap at +300%, FF's ppm, and more just make it not as efficient as some may think to put FF in any power it can take. 2-3 is often more than enough for most builds, if that. Its all a maths dance anyway, faster recharge of powers means more end use. Too much focus on such can diminish the damage and or other aspects of the toon to make them more capable as well. This is as you and most of us know that people for years delve into the min/maxing and math play with mids or on the test server to come up with what they think is the best(though mids is becoming more and more unreliable sadly with its spaghetti code too(Just yesterday I was toggling and toggling a power on mids and it was causing the stats to almost never consistently give the same numbers from on/off as one would expect that it should. I've even found in the past(and let the mids folks know, recharge % value bugs too. It is what it is as the volume of care needed to replace it with something else is only what a quantum AI would likely be willing to tackle. 😛

Feature creep. That's all that really needs to be said on this.

It is also important to point out that many in the EU opt to play on Excelsior as well for various reasons that I've seen.

Mids reborn also has its own discord where the caretakers of it and others congregate. It also has builds and discussions builds that do not always overlap similar discussions here.

Also keep in mind it utilizes contamination and -def which speaks to why it was likely was designed with that limitation in mind for balance sake to the power set.

You're asking a catch all/cure all concerning "which is better". Answers you'll get from folks will vary because your specific game play goals dictate effectivity. If you're a gen pop casual play post 50 tank, then any damn thing is enough. If you have specific goals with hard core 4 star content for example, then your choices of powers, builds etc with tanks becomes much more min/max in considerations with some sets becoming not encouraged etc. You've asked though in general so, "anything is fine" applies. As for proton sweep, same thing applies. If you're gen pop, anything's fine. If you've some specific goal in mind for your play, then it may not be as effective a choice. Its not really a debate per se. Since you've noted you've been away for years, the mechanics of defense were changed a couple of years back to where positional defense is now with higher effectivity over damage type defense. Essentially the effectivities were reversed by HC. Someone also already addressed the point concerning s/l from what you'd previously believed as well.

If you're not interested in making specific AT builds known to be the most optimal for farming inf per hour, then you have to accept your milage will dramatically vary in how you make money in game otherwise of course. The more contrarian you become on that, the less you will earn of course. That is a choice. There is a guide you've been directed to in a previous thread of yours concerning farming builds and how to make your own AE farms for such endeavors. That's because you were not building specifically for those farms and that goes back to what I said above. As for SF/TF's if reliant on those for revenue, its going to be in the long run rather slow going. The primary requirement for that though is then having the converters. If you're doing content for other reasons that at the same time earns you merits, then it becomes a bit of a kill two birds with one stone or if you've created an already self sustained influence pool from which to buy converters to then use in that method to get enhancements that you want to sell then for profit, then it becomes alright. But keep in mind this is essentially a revenue stream based primarily on redistribution of influence vs an actual generation of it yourself. AH doesnt actually generate influence. It actually is a limited influence sink with its redistribution between players. There is a distinct difference that may be for some splitting hairs but there is something important to understand from it that has a broader long term effect. This then circles us back to your various threads points of you being more RP immersively focused but having been warned multiple times that you're also putting yourself in conflict with your needs/desires to make money otherwise. You could just simply be a bit more creative in your thinking so that you can justify any methods of play to do what you need but really you're just more or less adverse to doing methods that are the most effective that others employ in a more intentionally contrarian way, as if it is a mark of accomplishment. That's fine but again its also why you're repeatedly coming to the forums voicing frustrations with the challenges that you're encountering. Your self imposed limitations are what's essentially hamstringing you. There are also other methods besides one mentioned and your current honeymoon with converter gambling too. But if that, for now, matches your rp/thematics and reticent to use the other effective methods, and you're happy with it, then that's all really that matters in your desires to play as you wish.