Hjarki

Both Blazing Arrow and Explosive Arrow do Fire damage.

Not really, no. However, +10% Recharge and +5% Ranged Defense is fantastic.

While accurate in the abstract, this is not a very useful list in the specific. For example, I'd never prioritize Max HP on a Bio Tanker because you can't. The general method for optimization is to create a cost function that relates the value of various attributes. So you might write 1.7a + 1.2b + 2.9c + 3.2d = optimization parameter. Those weights let you counter-balance the actual impacts rather than simply saying d > a. So let's consider Bio vs. Invulnerability. On an Invulnerability Tanker, I'd almost certainly slot Dull Pain with Preventative Medicine. On a Bio Tanker, I'd rarely ever add a slot to Inexhaustible. While I'd like to maximize Max HP on every Tanker, the reality is that Inexhaustible doesn't return enough value to justify slotting while Dull Pain (about 4 times more effective) does. So when you say to prioritize Max HP on a Bio Tanker, my response is: you can't, so don't bother. The Accolades and Unbreakable Constraint unique that every build takes will be the lion's share of your Max HP because Bio is only marginally better than Super Reflexes at buffing Max HP. Likewise, when you say to prioritize Regen, I'm not going to slot the pair of +regen uniques (or, as noted above, Inexhaustible) because the return on investment for those slots is so small. On the other hand, I'm almost certainly going to slot Ablative Carapace and DNA Siphon because the return is very large for my investment there. But it's not like I'm going to make some sort of radical compromise that hurts my build. I'll go to ID levels using sets that otherwise improve my build. When I look at Bio armor, I'm not inventing a priority list based on what I wish it provided but based on what it - and the various sets - actually provide. So my build goals are more along the lines of reaching F/C/E/N soft-cap (normally just a byproduct of slotting LotG mules and pushing Environmental Modification to ED) and S/L hard-cap (not all that hard but still requires some effort). I'm not thinking about Max HP or Regen at all because those are just simply byproducts of slotting powers in a fairly normal way. I'm not thinking about recharge all that much because most builds land in the 80% - 110% range unless you're really trying to push them for some reason - and going out of that range normally requires some serious compromises. Ultimately, I think the key is to not try to force a build to be something it's not. The almost inevitable result is highly un-optimized build where you sacrifice all sorts of critical elements in single-minded pursuit of something you probably didn't need in the first place.

This is my Bio/Stone/Psi: Hardened Carapace (Aegis R, R/E, R/E/R, +psi; Steadfast Protection +def) Inexhaustible (Panacea +health/end) Environmental Modification (LotG +recharge; Reactive Defenses D, +resist; Shield Wall D, +resist) Ablative Carapace (Preventative Medicine full set) Evolving Armor (Unbreakable Constraint R, R/E, R/E/R, +hp) DNA Siphon (Eradication A/R, A/D/R, proc; Preventative Medicine H, H/R, H/R/E) Genetic Contamination (Eradication D, A/R, proc; Superior Gauntleted Fist A/D, D/R, proc) Stone Fist (Superior Might of the Tanker full set) Stone Mallet (D-Sync Empowerment+3 A/D; Damage+5; Touch of Death proc; Gladiator's Strike proc; Perfect Zinger proc; Force Feedback proc) Heavy Mallet (Superior Gauntleted Fist A/D/R, D/E/R, A/D/E/R; Gladiator's Strike D/R, proc; Force Feedback proc) Taunt (Mocking Beratement full set) Fault (Absolute Amazement all but proc; Force Feedback proc) Tremor (Armageddon all but D; Force Feedback proc) Seismic Smash (Hecatomb all but D; Unbreakable Constraint proc) Boxing Toughness (Gladiator's Armor R, R/E, R/E/R, +def) Weave (LotG D, +recharge) Combat Jumping (LotG +recharge) Maneuvers (LotG +recharge) Assault (EndRed) Stealth (LotG +recharge) Dominate (Neuronic Shutdown A/E, A/R) Harmonic Mind (Power Transfer +heal) Health (Miracle +recovery; Numina's Convalescence +Regen/Recovery) Stamina (Performance Shifter +recovery) It's designed to hard-cap S/L (with at least one enemy in melee range) while Incarnate soft-capping E/N/F/C in Defensive (which obviously means well exceeding the normal soft-cap in Offensive). A basic rotation of Fist -> Stone Mallet -> Fist -> Heavy Mallet with Seismic Smash thrown whenever it recharges does decent single target damage. AE damage is weaker since I use Fault for CC and DNA Siphon for healing. Due to the Mag 4 Hold in the ST rotation and the self-stacking Disorient from Fault, enemies can rarely strike back all that effectively (at least in melee range). Psi attacks are a weakness. From a damage perspective, the major hurdle would be that if no one else on your team brings Achilles Heel and FotG, you don't either.

With any melee set, you need to start by figuring out what rotation you'll be running, how recharge will be necessary for that rotation and how much internal recharge (and thus how many procs) each attack can take. In my experience, Energy Melee is a lot worse than it looks on paper because it requires an abnormally large number of melee attacks (limiting the diversity of sets you can use) and it doesn't function well except at extreme levels of recharge.

There's only a single proc available for Smoke Flash (Perfect Zinger), so it can't really be a 'proc bomb'. Putting that proc into Smoke Flash would invalidate the Placate. However, the Placate is a Mag 3 placate (doesn't affect Bosses and above) I almost universally 6-slot Mocking Beratement into this power. It gives a smidegen of S/L defense (most */Ninja Blasters are going for S/L/E/R defenses) and 7.5% recharge. It's a nice set up for many PBAoE ultimates since it provides a no-notify resistance debuff and protects against enemies that see through your weak stealth. And, of course, it can be used as a panic button to prevent getting overwhelmed by a large crowd.

All of these mathematical tools are dependent on independence of your random variables - which isn't the case here. What you're attempting to do is akin to feeding a large number of chess matches into a statistical analysis to see which piece is most popular to move on a given turn - and expecting this analysis to help you win chess games. While the graph of Chess has far more rigid connectivity than CoH, your confidence in your results is misplaced.

Sentinel versions of Aim have +33% Range attached.

Blinding Powder is (somewhat) useful for stealth'ing mission objectives (although less so on a Sentinel without Aim). More importantly, it permits slotting Coercive Persuasion (10% recharge and 5% Ranged Defense), which is one of the best sets in the game.

A major selling point of CoH is how it lets you customize your look without being a slave to game mechanics as it is in other games. So when you're talking about visual effects linked to game mechanics, players are generally willing to tolerate particle effects and glowing hands - but they start to get upset when you make it impossible to see the actual costume underneath the avalanche of power effects. The basic principle here is that you shouldn't need to choose powers based on how you want your character to look standing around in the plaza.

There are quite a few subtle differences that give specific builds for Sentinel a raison d'etre. Consider Vulnerability. While this is often viewed as a standard -resist debuff, it actually debuffs resistances to debuffs as well. So when you combine it with Beam's -regen or Electric's -end, it makes these effects hit much harder - especially on AV/GM. Cones for Sentinels are often subtly better or worse. The shorter range on Cones like Piercing Beam and Piercing Shot mean that your Annihilation -res (and others) proc will hit much more often than it would for a Blaster due to the better area factor. Likewise, Sentinels have an easier time piling on +range from ATOs and secondaries, so their standard Cones (which generally do not suffer a range penalty) often hit larger areas. Ultimates like Thunderous Blast and Category Five where damage isn't the primary purpose of the ultimate benefit greatly from the reduced recharge, enabling them to be used every spawn or with much higher uptime than Blasters. Conventional ultimates perform much better with procs than standard Blaster ultimates due to higher cyclic rate without penalizing proc chance (the Blaster ultimates are normally way over-max for proc chance). That Armageddon + Unbreakable Constraint Atomic Blast is about 50% more dps on a Sentinel vs. a Blaster. The Sentinel secondaries also vary a great deal in what they provide for your primary. For example, Stone Armor provides a boost of about 23 dps to your single target rotation - which will normally be a lot better than what you'd get from something like Devices +20% damage. With that being said, normally you're not building a Sentinel to maximize pylon dps. You're building them because they allow you some useful utility better than what you'd likely receive from a Blaster or Scrapper.

Fire's DoT doesn't Scourge. In terms of a secondary to pair with Thermal, I'd recommend Electrical Blast. It's a purely ranged set that, once you drain an opponent's Endurance, is as hard-hitting as any secondary. Drained enemies are also almost completely neutered (AV/GM still get their special abilities), making it a fantastic set from a defensive perspective. Also, while Heat Exhaustion inexplicably can't take EndMod sets, it's an end/recovery debuff. Lastly, Electrical Blast exemplars well because it gets the complete single target rotation by level 20.

Yes and no. As an area effect attack it is, like most Cones, of somewhat limited value due to the need to line up the spawn. While Tankers have the benefit of taunt auras (to compress packs) and wider arcs, they have the disadvantage of normally not wanting to re-position to optimize cones because their movement disrupts that nicely packed spawn. As a single target attack,Tanker cones of this sort are often a decent choice due to their low area factors (1.24 for Proton Sweep). Such attacks can slot Fury of the Gladiator and Armageddon - neither of which would be available in a conventional single target rotation. Cones also tend to have the right levels of recharge for inclusion into single target rotations and, if their activation is amenable (1.848 is decent but not ideal for Radiation Melee), can form a part of a strong rotation. If you run: Contaminated Strike (Gladiator's Strike A/D, proc; Damage Enhancement; proc, proc, proc) Radioactive Smash (Gladiator's Strike A/D, proc; Hecatomb D, proc; proc, proc) Proton Sweep (Fury of the Gladiator A/D, proc; Armageddon D, proc; proc, proc) Then you'll be dealing about 185 dps against a single target @ +125% damage. With a 65% uptime on FotG, that would rise to 209 dps. It would rise further if you replaced a proc in one of the single target powers with Achilles Heel. Unfortunately, there are two problems you'll encounter with Radiation Melee: Lack of an opportunistic attack. This sort of rotation is fantastic for Tankers because it arrives very early in the level progression so you can retain even when exemplar'd to low levels (and it's a lot easier to level). However, the best such rotations have some longer recharge attack down in the tree that will be thrown on recharge to boost your dps. Radiation does have Devastating Blow, but it would constitute a dps loss in this sort of rotation. Lack of set mechanics to offset the costs. Sets like Savage and Staff work with this methodology because they have innate mechanics that ameliorate the problem of not slotting your offensive powers for set bonuses. If you're just slotting Scrapper-style with 5-set Hecatomb, 5-set Armegeddon, etc., you're getting a significant amount of recharge/accuracy that this sort of proc slotting doesn't provide. Since Radiation Melee itself doesn't provide it either, it's a struggle to make this sort of build work.

The question isn't really answerable unless you clarify what type of play you're doing. There are a lot of builds that are horrible when exemplar'd down to Posi levels. Most builds designed for farming or solo'ing AV/GM are weak running a generic task force. Support sets vary from "overpowered" to "worthless" depending on team composition and the type of content. Probably the best answers you'll get are for very narrow content. People run tests against pylons, specific farms and the Trapdoor mission competitively, so there are builds that may not be the best possible but are definitely within sight of the best such builds.

Asking this sort of question without the qualifier "no inspirations, temporary powers or active incarnate abilities" tends to yield a lot of responses that reflect the power of those abilities more than the underlying virtues of the build.