Hjarki

My general approach: Entangling Arrow (Gravitational Anchor). This is a mandatory pick and it's not horrible, but not great. It's only a Mag 3 Immobilize, so it's not actually much good as an Immobilize. While you can theoretically lock down an AV/GM eventually and it can slot another purple set, it's primarily a -resist debuff for hard single target fights. Flash Arrow (4-set Cloud Senses, no proc). This is one of the key powers of the set and it will normally floor an opponent's hit unless they have ways to significantly resist -hit debuffs. Glue Arrow (skip). Aside from being a weak effect, it doesn't have good slotting options. Ice Arrow (4-set Basilisk's Gaze). While I don't actually use this much as a Hold, it's one of the best single target debuffs in game and it can slot the excellent Basilisk's Gaze. Poison Gas Arrow (skip). I want to like this, but it just doesn't do enough. Any time I'd be tempted to use it, Flash Arrow is the better option. Acid Arrow (procs). This can be used as an AE by slotting a host of different procs into it. Even on sets where you don't have Energy/Fire damage, this can permit igniting oil slicks. Disruption Arrow (nothing or Preemptive Optimization). The Endurance component of this power doesn't do much but permit slotting a set into a power that otherwise doesn't need slotting. However, it's a great -resist debuff. Oil Slick Arrow (various AE damage options). This does as much damage as most ultimates (albeit without Aim/Build Up) and can take a host of procs. EMP Arrow (4-set Basilisk's Gaze). The primary use I have for this power is actually the 'bubble'. As an offensive effect, it's narrow to the point of uselessness. However, being able to mule Hold sets and lay down a status protection effect makes it a strong pick. Overall, I think Trick Arrow is one of the best sets because it has massive debuffing, exceptional slotting opportunities and covers a traditional weakness in Control sets (AE damage).

FIre/Dark is a fairly strong choice as well.

Precise Strike. This is an ideal place to put the +50% proc because the standard rotation - PS, Serpent's Reach, PS, Skysplitter - always follows it with a very hard-hitting attack. Putting the proc into the damage aura means that it applies somewhat randomly rather than at the optimal point in your rotation. Guarded Spin. This can take LotG recharge (and generally should). That leaves 5 slots for either Avalanche or Armageddon, although various frankenslotting options work as well. Eye of the Storm. Force Feedback proc is ideal here and dramatically increasing AE damage. Serpent's Reach. This is inevitably going to take some of Apocalypse, but the 6-set bonus isn't particularly useful. It can also take up to two additional procs if you're willing to forgo the recharge bonus. Cloak of Darkness. Another good place for LotG Recharge. Cloak of Fear. The accuracy on this power is problematic, as is the endurance cost. However, as long as you accept that you'll only use it situationally, it's a great place for Cloud Senses (recharge, ranged def). Oppressive Gloom. This stacks with the disorient from your attacks, so can come in handy. It can also slot Absolute Amazement. To achieve the rotation I mentioned above, you'll need +225% recharge for Skysplitter, +203% recharge for Precise Strike. This means you'll almost certainly need Hasten. I haven't tested it out, but something like so might be a good baseline for ideas:

Very few enemies are purely ranged. The only ones I can think of off-hand would be things like Rikti drones or various floating Psionic enemies. Almost everything else has, at the very least, a brawl-type attack. But there are plenty of enemies that are mostly ranged. These enemies will try to exhaust their (good) ranged attacks before they resort to any sort of melee attack. Even with multi-tanking, you're running afoul of the target cap. While you can certainly pack 100 mobs into a small area, that doesn't change the fact that you're only able to damage 16 of them at once (and frequently less than that). So you need some sort of synergy effect to justify doing it over simply having each tank take their own little group. There are certainly reasons to do this. If you have a Kinetics players in your group, they can only pick one direction to go but they can buff the entire team. So it may prove more worthwhile to keep the entire group together so everyone can get the +damage buff. However, even then, trying to do much more than simply maintain at 16 (which may involve grabbing other groups before the current one is dead) doesn't make much sense.

Some notes: Gauntlet does not appear to have a -range debuff, only the Taunt powers from secondaries. Here's the entry for Gauntlet: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=redirects.inherents.gauntlet_proc_aura&at=tanker Players have an aggro cap of 17. While your effects (including Taunt) will remain on the target if it drops off your aggro list, you will not hold threat on more than 17 targets regardless of the effects you have on them and if mobs are too far away from you, they will not re-aggro. Moreover, having just a taunt effect is not a significant source of threat. 'Herding' in the classic sense doesn't work. There's no benefit to super-large groups of enemies since everyone has AE target caps (and most of those caps are less than the aggro cap anyway) and going over your aggro cap just means you'll get people killed. Mostly you're going to see melee leap-frogging one another from spawn to spawn. Not moving is perhaps the most critical skill a tank can learn. Because the tank is the focal point of the battle, you want to pick your spot and stay there until it's time to move to the next spawn. If you're running around, you'll be disrupting your own group's targeting and making the fight much harder than it has to be. Once you've engaged, don't chase after enemies - either pull them in with ranged attacks or just deal with the fact that they're not in the scrum. Breaking LOS is a legitimate tactic, but one that should be used sparingly because it's incredibly slow and normally unnecessary. In most cases, holding aggro on the ranged that refuse to close distance is unnecessary - your own ranged can easily win the one-on-one fight - as long as you're holding aggro on the general group (so your Blaster doesn't end up in a one-on-many fight).

Tanker and Scrapper versions have different recharge numbers. Spin on a Tanker is 14 sec while the damage on the Tanker's Spin is actually higher than the damage on the Scrapper's. Focus is 8 sec on a Tanker vs. 6 sec on a Scrapper. To put this in perspective, let's look at the two big attacks. On a Tanker, Follow Up will deal 42.2638 damage. On a Scrapper, it will deal 50.0492 damage. With a recharge of 12 sec, the quad procs will deal 257 damage. With 100% internal recharge, a single purple proc will deal 55 damage. On a Tanker, Focus will deal 79.7728 damage. On a Scrapper, it will deal 86.9605 damage. With a recharge of 8 sec, the quad procs will deal 189 damage. With a recharge of 6 sec, a single purple proc will deal 58 damage. Defensively, hitting F/C/E/N soft-caps and S/L hard-cap (in offensive adaptation) is trivial on a Tanker - you'll hit those marks just building for recharge. The Scrapper version of this build isn't remotely close to the survivability of the Tanker version. Scrappers do get a better bonus from Follow Up (37.5% to 30%). However, the relatively light base damage of the attacks means that this has a lot less impact than you might expect. Indeed, even on a Scrapper, you should probably be quad-proc'ing Follow Up (the lack of procs is an issue for Focus, not Follow Up). The rotation you're listing has 220 base damage for a Scrapper. Going from 3 stacks to 2 stacks would thus lose you 82 damage - far less than you'd gain by layering all of those procs on a slower recharge Follow Up. However, it's significantly harder to put together the rest of the build on a Scrapper.

I prefer the Tanker: No heavy-hitting attack. On a Scrapper, you want a set where the attack after your ATO proc hits like a truck. Claws' hardest hitting attacks aren't even as good as a epic Snipe. Perfect Zinger. Tankers can slot it. Scrappers can't. This means you can quad-proc Follow Up and Focus on a Tanker while you only have three proc options on a Scrapper. Weak second attack. Virtually all melee sets force Tankers to take a bad attack but permit Scrappers/Stalkers/Brutes to take the decent second attack. For Claws, neither attack is desirable so Scrappers have no real advantage in 'wasted powers'. Easier to meet defensive goals. When you're quad-proc'ing attacks, you need a lot from the rest of your build to make up for the fact that you can't use your offensive powers for set bonuses.

Flash Arrow makes solo'ing Trick Arrow trivial. Unless you're pushing the limits of the game, it floors enemy hit chances. The fact that you get a second ultimate in Oil Slick Arrow is no slouch either. For AV/GM solo'ing, it's nearly unmatched because you get status protection on top of massive debuffs.

The use conditions on most Traps powers are sufficiently inconvenient that it's tough to directly compare them. It's not a bad secondary for a Mastermind since you're already stuck managing your pets and the same sort of tools (like Mass Teleport) tend to work for Traps. But for a non-Mastermind, you basically get all the clunkiness of a Mastermind without performing all that much better than the alternatives.

I rolled up a quick character on the test server. With no slotting/fury/whatever (+0% damage), I got 26.71 and 64.81 with a level 40 character against even con enemies from a standard fire farm. With +580% damage (Build Up + a lot of reds), I got 106.88 and 259.59. That suggests that the ability is damage capped at 4x damage.

Is this actually a thing? I know that on my Radiation/Fire farmer, both Irradiated Ground and Burn go all the way up to 700% damage and they're both pseudo-pets. I'm pretty sure my Ice Blaster can Blizzard @ 500%. I don't know about Shield Charge specifically, but I don't think there's a general psuedopet limit.

Stone only has two AE and only one does damage. I think taking both is a wise idea because it's a great place to slot Absolute Amazement + Force Feedback to reduce the cycle time on Tremor. For single target, let's start with Seismic Smash. It's one of the hardest-hitting melee attacks and it can slot the Unbreakable Constraint proc. At perma-Hasten, we'll need to find a way to spend 5.33 sec between Seismic Smash. If we can tip it slightly over this (~4% more recharge), we can do Stone Fist(x2), Gloom, Heavy Mallet, Seismic Smash as a rotation. Build Up is normally useless for a Brute, but Shield has one of the few long cooldown/high damage attacks around. It's not a Blaster's ultimate, but it's not terrible. However, I'd probably skip it. Taunt is your preference. I normally wouldn't take it on a positional defense set (due to the IO sets available to taunts). Then just skip Stone Mallet and Hurl.

When I was running the numbers, the 20% surprised me a bit because I had a dim memory of it being closer to 10%. Didn't remember the change in Brute cap.

A Tanker has a 500% damage cap and a Brute has a 775% damage cap. However, a Tanker has a 95% damage scale while a Brute has a 75% damage scale. Without any reds, your Tanker is probably at 225% damage while your Brute is at 400%, for 213.75% vs. 300% (40% more for Brute) If both are at cap, you're looking at 4.75 vs. 5.8125 damage scale (20% more for Brute) To get to that cap, the Tanker probably starts from 225% and needs 11 reds. The Brute probably starts at 400% and needs 15. For damage from Fiery Aura, that's the whole story. For damage from the melee set, there's also the issue of arc/radius/target caps. There's no definitive number I can throw out for how much better the Tanker AEs are than the Brute AEs, but I can guess from experience. In a situation like a Fire Farm with constant enemies and a build designed to feed a steady supply of those enemies, my rough guess is that Tanker Cone attacks are twice as good as Brute Cone attacks due to the arc/radius/target caps. On the other hand, 360 degree PBAoE are probably only about 20% better because the increased radius isn't doing much for you and you can't keep 16+ mobs in your radius for very long. Indeed, Cones are so much better on a Tanker than a Brute that your Cone damage is likely to be a 'free' bonus because you wouldn't even take the Cone on a Brute where it becomes one of your highest dps contributors on a Tanker. Presuming you're willing to accept my admittedly vague guesstimates about the effectiveness of the arc/radius/target cap changes, this would mean that Fire/Fire would almost certainly be preferable on a Brute since it doesn't gain anything from Cones. However, traditional builds like Fire/Spines or Fire/Radiation are likely to be a lot closer - and potentially favor the Tanker - due to Proton Sweep and Ripper.

Energy is one of the weaker primaries and Dark is one of the weaker secondaries. Dark Blast is one of the stronger primaries. Energy Aura is probably one of the best overall armor sets... as long as you never face anything with Psi damage.

Fire Blast: This is a relatively simple set. You've got two key single target powers: Blaze and Blazing Bolt. Blazing Bolt is almost always slotted with Sting of the Manticore for Ranged Def, Recharge and the proc. Blaze will generally be slotted with Hecatomb (ideally) for recharge and the proc. Beyond that, you're really just looking to close the rotation. Fireball is frequently used in the single target rotation. Flares is probably the best choice for (much) of the remainder since it's always available and takes minimal activation time. For AE, Fireball is a solid performer and you're going to take Inferno. Rain of Fire tends to be less worthwhile for Blasters. Devices: Toxic Web Grenade. Like all of the tier one Immobilizes, this is of minimal use. It can mule sets like Gravitational Anchor but it's usually best to leave it unslotted. Caltrops. This is an auto-hit Mag 50 Fear. It's great for creating an interdiction zone where enemies don't go (or, at least, don't stay). It's not very effective at keeping them in place (due to the aforementioned Mag 50 Fear) and while you can slather procs in it, the enemies won't stay around long enough to take much damage. However, it's a very solid choice for muling various Ranged AE sets since it doesn't need any slotting to be a solid power and it is a solid power. Note: Devices is not a Hover-friendly set, and this is one of the reasons why. Taser. This is an exceptionally good single target attack and should be taken/slotted as such. While the range isn't great, it definitely should be part of your rotation. Targeting Drone. This works better on purely ranged sets since it's your replacement for Build Up and only works before you engage the spawn. While you've got tools to sneak up on people, it's a lot easier to just unload your ultimate from range. That being said, it doesn't require much slotting. Smoke Grenade. Another auto-hit power, this can be left unslotted. When slotted, it normally takes Dark Watcher's Despair 4-set for the recharge bonus. Situationally handy. If you're stealth'ing missions, it lets you interact with clickies without aggro'ing nearby mobs. It also lets you fire off nukes in the middle of enemies with less worry. Field Operative. A defense/stealth/regen/recovery toggle. Lots of options for uniques and other niceties here. Trip Mine. Another ultimate, but not nearly as good because you don't get the benefit of Targeting Drone on its damage. Time Bomb. Generally not taken because it's too inconvenient to use. Gun Drone. This can take the recharge/defense bonuses from Expedient Reinforcement. However, it helps to have another pet (probably from patron pools) so you can mule the pet resist/defense bonuses - Call to Arms + 2 slots gives you all 4 pet uniques and 6.25% recharge. I don't think Fire is all that synergistic with Devices, not for the least reason that it has a PBAoE ultimate and Targeting Drone tends to encourage ranged ultimates. It's not impossible to get the damage boost from Targeting Drone while standing in the middle of a spawn but it's unnecessary tricky in my mind. You're also not using the ATOs. While I can understand not slathering your build with purple and Winter sets, the ATOs generally run 8 million or so per - less than most PvP IOs and not much more expensive than popular standard IOs like LotG. For Blasters, one of the sets gives you 10% recharge and +5% Ranged Def while the other gives you 10% recharge and +2.5% Ranged Def.

There are situations where what we believe should happen and what actually does happen aren't the same. For example, let's say I slot Perfect Zinger into my Smite. The 'right' behavior for this is that when I Smite a target, Perfect Zinger will proc Psi damage on up to 5 targets within 10 yards but not proc on the target itself. The actual behavior is that it acts like pretty much every other proc and just damages the one guy I Smite'd. I agree with your premise - Cloud Senses and Glimpse of the Abyss 'should' only work on the primary target due to how the power is structured. However, I'm not sure that's how the game actually works and someone upthread implied that they strike the entire AE.

I presented the math to demonstrate the principles involved - 'proc monster' builds require powers that can actually slot procs and benefit greatly from balanced rotations with similar powers. I understand you're proud of your spreadsheet, but it's a lot easier for people to just use Mid's. In terms of "plays at +0", I'm not sure why it would matter. We're only concerned with comparing values, so the across-the-board purple patch scaling isn't relevant.

A single SO+5 would be 24.1638 additional points of damage. With a 1.675 AF, the proc chance would be 34.72% or 24.9126 average per proc. So it's a bit of a wash. Still between Scirocco's Dervish D/E and Obliteration D, you're going to hit ED with even half a damage enhancement anyway so you might as well 4-proc it. That being said, I'm not sure if Cloud Senses or Glimpse of the Abyss work on the AE portion.

In retrospect, I'd move Apocalypse to Blaze to avoid capping the proc chance. It doesn't meaningfully change the overall dps, though. Adding another proc to Dominate (and fixing a math error above) would raise the dps to 256. Still not very competitive. What slotting would you prefer?

Let's assume it does. You have: Flares: 1 standard proc Blaze: 1 standard proc Blazing Bolt: 1 standard proc, Apocalypse Mind Probe: 1 standard proc, Hecatomb Dominate: 3 standard procs, Unbreakable Constraint The entire cycle is: base_damage = (35.9242 + 15.8489) * (1 + 1.25) + ... (103.5462 + sum([0.8 0.8^2 0.8^3 0.8^4 0.8^5]) * 11.867) * (1 + 1.25) + ... (5.1615 * 13 + 48.1807) * (1 + 1.25) + ... (103.5462) * (1 + 1.25) + ... (52.8297) * (1 + 1.25) proc_damage = (2 + 0.833) * 3.5 / 60 * 71.75 + ... (10 + 1) * 3.5 / 60 * 71.75 + ... min(0.9,(12 + 1.667) * 4.5 / 60) * 107.1 + ... min(0.9,(12 + 1.667) * 3.5 / 60) * 71.75 + ... min(0.9,(20/1.9 + 1.167) * 4.5 / 60) * 107.1 + ... min(0.9,(20/1.9 + 1.167) * 3.5 / 60) * 71.75 + ... min(0.9,(16 + 1.167) * 4.5 / 60) * 107.1 + ... min(0.9,(16 + 1.167) * 3.5 / 60) * 71.75 cycle_time = 1 + 1.188 + 1.848 + 1.32 + 1.32 (base_damage + proc_damage) / cycle_time This yields 231.85 dps. For comparison, the Suppressive Fire -> Executioner's Shot -> Cremate cycle I mentioned above is somewhere in the vicinity of 300 dps.

Fire/Bio/Psi isn't particularly amenable to being a 'proc monster': Fire has no secondary effects, which means that the only procs you can it in the single target powers are Gladiator's Javelin and (for one of them), Apocalypse. Ranged AT can take Bombardment and Positron's Blast while PBAoE can take Armageddon, Obliteration, Eradication and Scirocco's Dervish. However, Rains don't work particularly well with procs. Fire also lacks any knockback effects, denying you the excellent Force Feedback. Bio is actually quite effective for a 'proc monster'... on any other AT. On a Sentinel, you lose all of the offensive powers that could potentially slot great set bonuses without compromising their effectiveness. Sentinels also lack the primaries that can help solve Bio's S/L and DDR issues. Psi is often considered the 'best' Sentinel epic pool, but this deserves an asterisk when you're talking about maximizing dps via procs. Psi has both the attacks you need for a good rotation: a Hold and a melee attack. Both are solid attacks. Unfortunately they're also tremendously long recharge attacks. To actually fit them in a 3-power rotation on perma-Hasten build, you'd need to find a ranged attack with a 4 sec activation and 5 sec recharge to interleave between them. As a result, you need to have a more comprehensive rotation in primary to accommodate those long recharge attacks - which either means slotting them for recharge (reducing the slots you have for procs while not improving the proc component of your dps much) or minimizing their effect on your attack cycle. The general principle is you want to select an offensive set that can take all the procs you want (i.e. not Fire) and then a support/armor set that can provide all the accuracy, recharge, endurance management and defense you won't be getting from IO sets in primary. If you want an exercise for the reader, try Dual Pistols/Super Reflexes/Fire Mastery structured around a Suppressive Fire -> Executioner's Shot -> Cremate rotation. It's about as close to 'perfect' as a proc monster gets - a Hold, a melee attack and a 4-proc ranged attack all in the 8 - 12 sec recharge range coupled with an armor set that provides recharge, endurance management and soft-cap defenses without too much trouble. As a bonus, it even has KB AE for Force Feedback. You should be able to get ~30% more ST dps than a Fire/Bio/Psi can achieve (without external buffs).

Midnight Grasp can take 6 procs on a Tanker and the 15 sec recharge means they essentially auto-proc. So that's something like 420 damage before the ability does it's own damage.

I find this really slows everything down to a crawl compared to diving into the spawn and (if necessary) compressing it with Taunt.

Gloom is a valid choice for that purpose - I saw you fully slotted Thunder Kick and assumed you were planning on using it.