Hjarki

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.

Honestly, unless your goal is to win some sort of "best farm time" race, I'd just go with a classic Rad/Fire Brute. You can go from zero influence on a new account to a fully tricked out Farmer without any outside help in relatively short time. Moreover, the difference between that Rad/Fire Brute and the ultra-optimized 'perfect' farmer isn't actually all that significant - especially when you're talking about passive farming.

A Fireball's dot ticks don't scourge at all. In general, 'value add' bonuses such as Fire's additional DoT on most attacks, Electric's Shocked! or Water Blast's build-and-spend mechanic do not scourge. The reason Rain of Fire and similar attacks Scourge based on current health (rather than health at activation) is that they're pseudo-pets that activate periodically through a duration rather than all at once at the beginning.

Cones on Tankers are unusually effective for farming. All the various forms of primary damage and damage auras in secondary are no better on a Tanker than any other AT. PBAoE are increased by 60% to 16 targets - but that requires you actually have 16 targets (which you normally don't have for long). Cones, on the other hand, are increased by 100% and only require 10 targets to hit maximum effect. Cones also work much more effectively with procs than PBAoE (or auras). A 90 degree 10' cone has an AF of 1.3825 while a 10' PBAoE has an AF of 2.125.

The proc chance of Achilles against a single target is 30.7%, so the average -resist is 6.14%. After purple patch (+3), this would be a 4% resist debuff. Also, bear in mind that offensive procs aren't auto-hit so unless you slot accuracy into the power, you're going to miss a lot.

Kinetics is good when you're fighting large groups with melee AT. With Blasters, their ultimates are already near/at the +damage cap due to Build Up/Aim/Gaussian's, so Fulcrum Shift is superfluous even if you manage to toss it at the right time. Against an AV/GM, Fulcrum Shift tends to be weaker than debuff sets because you don't have enough targets. A set like Thermal or Nature will often help your team rip through that AV/GM than Kinetics will. However, once you step outside the context of solo play and how your buffs/debuffs help your own character, you run afoul of figuring out what your team actually needs.

Let's assume +100% global recharge and +25% global damage. Electric's Atom Smasher would be 81.886 * 1.25 / (3.168 + 22/2.2) = 7.77 dps. Bio's Atom Smasher would be 81.886 * 1.5 / (3.168 + 22 / 2) * 1.06916 = 9.27 dps. 6 procs in Atom Smasher would be 71.75 * 3.5 * (22 + 2.93) / 60 / 2.125 * 6) / (3.168 + 22/2.2) = 22.37 dps for Electric and 71.75 * 3.5 * (22 + 2.93) / 60 / 2.125 * 6) / (3.168 + 22/2) * 1.06916 = 22.23 dps for Bio. Electric's Irradiated Ground would be 6.8845 * 2 * 1.25 / 2 + 71.75 * 3.5 / 60 / 2.125 * 6 = 20.42 dps. Bio's Irradiated Ground would be (6.8845 * 2 * 1.5 / 2 + 71.75 * 3.5 / 60 / 2.125 * 6) * 1.06916 = 23.68 dps. Lightning Field would do (10.5659 * 2.25 / 2 + 3.5 / 60 / 1.9 * 71.75 * 4) = 20.70 dps. Genetic Contamination would do (7.9245 * 2.5 / 2 + 3.5 / 60 / 1.9 * 71.75 * 4) * 1.06916 = 20.01 dps. DNA Siphon would deal (26.419 * 1.9 + .9 * 71.75 * 5) / (1.848 + 90 / 2) * 1.06916 = 8.51 dps. Bio can also slot a Psionic damage proc in Evolving Armor for another +2.20 dps. Dragon's Tail, assuming automatic proc of FF, would deal (62.4341 * 1.25 + 71.75 * 3.5 * (14 + 1.5) / 60 / 1.9 * 5) / (1.716 + 14 / 3.35) = 42.20 dps. Radiation Therapy would deal (23.7734 * 1.65 + 71.75 * .9 * 5) / (1.188 + 60 / 3.35) = 18.96 dps Ground Zero would deal (105.6597 * 1.25 + 71.75 * .9 * 6) / (3.168 + 90 / 3.35) = 17.30 dps So: Electric = 7.77 + 22.37 + 20.42 + 20.70 = 71.26 dps Bio = 9.27 + 22.23 + 23.68 + 20.01 = 75.19 dps, or 75.1 + 8.51 = 83.61 dps active Radiation = 42.40 + 18.96 + 17.30 = 78.66 dps Note that Radiation would have a substantial advantage against 10+ targets. Additional Notes: Contrast Dark vs. Electric. Electric's +20% recharge is only worth about 2.12 dps (it only impacts the portion of damage from Atom Smasher). Dark has the same damage aura, but it also has two other auras that can slot procs (3 procs in Cloak of Fear, 1 proc in Oppressive Gloom) - and even a single extra proc outweighs the value of that +20% recharge. Given that Dark also has a +5% defense toggle (which makes building a farmer significantly easier) and it has potential proc bomb heal if you're so inclined, I'd argue that Dark is almost strictly superior to Electric for this purpose. On the active farming front, consider Staff. If I ran the numbers right, 6 proc Guarded Spin (on Radiation Armor) does 46.91 dps and 6 proc Innocuous Strikes does 49.87 dps. While they're only 10 targets, that's still an enormous disparity in potential dps between this sort of set and Martial Arts - especially when you consider we haven't yet talked about the third AE in the set (a PBAoE KB attack). For that matter, Ripper runs about 50.56 dps with 5 procs and is as reliable as Dragon's Tail for generating FF procs. It's also in a set with a damage aura and large radius PBAoE to add even more damage. A build like Radiation/Spines seems like it would be directly superior to Radiation/MA for the purposes of active farming.

I'm curious why either Radiation or Electric would be superior to Bio in terms of Tanker farming. All of them can hard-cap S/L resist. Bio has the easiest time soft-capping S/L def. Bio has a damage aura like Electric, but it also has a -resist aura. Bio also has a -damage aura, +health/regen and +damage. While Electric and Radiation have +recharge, noprmally this has a trivial effect on damage once you're fully slotted up.

Mind/Storm/Energy. Telekinesis is arguably the best complement to Tornado - it gathers mobs into a tiny area and roots them in place so your Tornado/Lightning Storm can grind away.

My suspicion is that a build like AR/Storm would work best for a pylon test. For tests like trapdoor where AE is most important, maybe Seismic/Kinetics for the high cyclic rate AE. Some things to remember about Corruptors: Scourge primarily affects single target damage against difficult enemies (AV/GM). Powers like Blizzard that exploit Scourge on crowds are the exception rather than the norm. Scourge doesn't affect "value add" abilities like Fire's additional damage or build-and-spend mechanics like Water Blast. Corruptors rely on procs far more than Blasters, especially in AE since they almost always split the ATO. Unlike Blasters, Corruptors can't replace low damage attacks with high damage attacks from secondary easily. Mostly, they can use -regen attacks from secondary as part of their rotation to cover weak spots. In terms of overall performance, Ice Blast is probably the strongest Corruptor primary. The secondaries are more of a mixed bag. Kinetics will almost always give you the best solo AE performance while single target performance gets into a long discussion about the relative value of -resist and -regen.

One of the issues faced by Corruptors is that Scourge is largely of use against very tough single targets (AV/GM). On anything else, it's either overkill or doesn't activate. Consider the ultimates. Our prototypical Blaster is going to throw that ultimate at the +damage cap (due to Aim/Build Up/Gaussian's) with a base damage scale of 1.125. Our Corruptor? Unless they're Kinetics, they're probably not at the +damage cap. It's a bit risky - especially with PBAoE - for them to lay in AE -resist debuffs (if they even have them). Since they're attacking an undamaged spawn, they're not getting Scourge. This means that while our Blaster is doing 5.625x normalized damage, our Corruptor is probably doing at more like 2.625x normalized damage. At this point, you might as well just be playing a Defender. However, Blizzard is different. You can launch it at range and then lay in a -resist debuff. Moreover, Blizzard might not Scourge on the early ticks, but it Scourges on the later ones. As a result, a Corruptor's Blizzard is dramatically stronger than a Corruptor's Inferno - as well as being far safer to use. Even on Blasters, Ice is often a better choice than Fire in terms of raw damage. You get a free purple proc from Unbreakable Constraint, you don't need to be worried about hitting +24 hit bonus for a Sniper attack and it has two very strong attacks that mesh well with the melee possibilities from secondary. So while Fire/Fire might be popular, it's arguably less potent than Ice/Fire.

While Thermal has no self-buff powers, Heat Exhaustion far exceeds the value of the minor +damage buffs from Pain when you're fighting AV/GM. Melt Armor is also a faster, lower recharge version of Anguishing Cry that is usable from range.

I tend to drop Siphon Power myself. The first problem is that it can't be slotted. So it's occupying a power pick I could otherwise be using to boost my stats. Then there's simply what it does: +damage/-damage. The +damage component is nice but Fulcrum Shift is significantly better at the same task and, in teams, normally sufficient to cap +damage anyway. The -damage component is stackable, but I don't find stackable -damage all that useful - if you can't take the damage before -damage is stacked, you probably don't need to stack it. -damage is also a relatively weak form of defense since it still gets hit by purple patch, it's resisted by resistance and it's additive. As a result, it gets worse the tougher the content gets.

For the purposes of tanking, I like Super Reflexes on Brute. Unlike Scrappers, they get a taunt aura. They also get the same values for scaling damage resist as Tankers (and everyone else). So in terms of overall durability, Brutes have less Defense than Tankers - but both will have more than enough for most ordinary content. The Brute ATO (providing end reduction/regen) helps with the fact that Super Reflexes has no health/endurance management. For offense, I'd lean towards Energy Melee. The fact that your ultimate attack costs no endurance helps with the same endurance management issue. Energy Melee is also generally the hardest-hitting single target set, although its AE is a bit lackluster. For epic pools, Psi is normally a strong choice.

I always skip Glue Arrow. It technically does a fair bit of damage - a bit over 70 damage - but this damage occurs slowly over 30 secs so it's mostly wasted. Procs also work poorly because it's a pseudopet. Trick Arrow also has the second best (after FIre) Immobilize. It does the same damage as your T1 attack (albeit without the possibility of the +20% damage on a low endurance target), so you can potentially just take T1 and the Sniper attack as single target attacks and still put together a respectable rotation. I take Ice Arrow solely because Holds are such slotting opportunities. You've got Unbreakable Constraint, Basilisk's Gaze and even Lockdown - all of which are amongst the game's best sets. Flash Arrow is nice if you like to stealth clickie missions. However, the hit debuff component is relatively small and is resisted into meaninglessness by AV/GM. It does enable you to slot Cloud Senses - but a full 6-slot will negate the stealth clickie aspect due to the damage proc. ESD Arrow. For almost every Blaster, this is a waste of a power. For an Electric Blast Blaster, I'd consider it essential. Once you've slotted it - presumably with Preemptive Optimization - it will floor the endurance of most spawns from range (especially if used in conjunction with Charge Up). While it's only 10 targets, it will increase your attacks - such as Thunderous Blast - by 20%. Oil Slick Arrow. Procs tend to work poorly in pseudopet powers (they don't use the recharge of the power but the activation time of the pseudopet). I tend to put a set like Artillery in here. Since you're using an Energy-based primary, it's pretty easy to explode and it does 250 damage over 15 sec (the same as a standard Blaster ultimate).

The Ninja 'crits' are a +25% damage bonus when you attack from stealth and an additional toxic proc on all of your attacks (very roughly worth about +10% damage). Since Blasters don't have the Stalker ATO letting them hide mid-combat, the +25% damage bonus is largely useful for opening with the ultimate. Note that this ability is significantly weaker than the comparable one from Devices (which is a permanent +20% damage and +80% damage on your opening attack). The major virtues of Ninja: A non-toggle regen/recovery mechanic that also allows you to slot Resist enhancements in case you want to go for S/L/E/R via Scorpion Shield but not waste a pool on Fighting. The ability to slot one of the best sets in the game (Coercive Persuasion). A non-notify -resist debuff that slots one of the other best sets around (Mocking Beratement). The actual attacks in Ninja are all fairly weak examples of the type and neither of the abilities taken at level 1 are particularly worthwhile - they're the kind of abilities you slot for set bonuses because you're forced to take them and then leave them off your bars. In terms of Electrical, it's... ok. The basic rotation is generic with little to recommend it beyond it not being unusually weak. It has an acceptable target AE. It does have a decent PBAoE, but this is often used as a endurance sapping mechanism because your attacks rise by about 20% on targets with low endurance (it's a percentage chance thing). It also has a pet that tags along to add some additional damage. The set is theoretically solid single target damage if you set it up well, but setting it up against large crowds is tricky (they're normally dead too fast) and targets like AV/GM resist end drain too much. What you might consider pairing with Electric is Tactical Arrow. The Immobilize you're forced to take is the equivalent of your T1 attack, so you can run a rotation that's just your first two power picks and the snipe. TA also has extra recharge, a non-Stealth defense toggle (helps with slotting 5xLotG). The last two powers are of particular note. ESD Arrow, slotting with EndMod enhancements, will zero out endurance on 10 targets at range. Oil Slick Arrow ignites for about 250 damage (before enhancements) when you hit it with Energy or Fire damage (presumably the former).

And people scoffed at my Rad/Psi Tanker...

Siphon Life can be slotted with Theft of Essence, Panacea and then various options for damage. Touch of Death allows 4-slotting with decent bonuses and no internal recharge. While it's not at ED limits, the proc counter-balances this. Slotting this way allows you to create a 'negative endurance' attack in your single target chain to deal with SR's lack of endurance management. Used rotationally, Siphon Life will probably restore more health than you ever need even with no health slotting. Your recharge is wonky. You're not even close to perma-Hasten, nor do you need to be. As a general rule, Hasten is only useful on builds that have some very long recharge power needing perma-Hasten (which this doesn't have). You should absolutely be using Hecatomb and Armageddon - and probably find a way to use two other purple sets as well. Adding Gloom to your single target rotation would make it smoother and Soul Mastery allows for slotting Apocalypse, Ragnarok and Expedient Reinforcement. Maneuvers is a more efficient source of +defense than enhancement sets. There's a dropdown box in the top center of your screen that sets relative enemy level. If you set it to +3, you'll see your hit chance against +4 AV/GM when you have Alpha Slot completed (with the +1 level shift). In all likelihood, you need neither Kismet nor Focused Accuracy if you use purple sets. A level 54 AV/GM will reduce your -hit debuffs to 65% of their normal value. They will then reduce that number by another 87%. In total, this means your -hit is 8.45% of the listed value. Given the relatively small values on the -hit on your Dark Melee attacks, trying to improve them for fighting AV/GM is normally a waste of time. The scaling resistances scale linearly below 60%. If you've got all three powers and Reactive Defenses proc, 30% resist (before scaling resists) means that your effective health will eventually stay constant as your health declines (at a very low level). Over 40% resist means your effective health will actually be higher at low health totals.

Many such questions can be answered here: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=stalker_melee.martial_arts.storm_kick&at=stalker In any case, Martial Arts on a Stalker tends to be... not good. The key virtues of Martial Arts as a set are generally accepted to be: Storm Kick provides a boost to all defense. Dragon's Tail, slotted with FF+recharge, is one of the highest dps AE available to melee AT. You'll note that neither of these features appears on the Stalker version of the set. So if you really like Martial Arts, you're probably better served with a Tanker or Brute. If you really like Stalkers, a set like Street Justice is thematically similar while still having AE. Of course, Street Justice isn't all that great either since its AE has an incredibly small radius and the mechanic of the set can't crit.

Mocking Beratement provides a small amount S/L res, S/L/F/C defense and a significant recharge boost as well as improving the taunt of the power. It's one of the best sets in the game and it helps with the duration problem.

Does anyone know of a decent AE S/L farm that doesn't have any -defense debuffs attached?

Skip Steam Spray. It doesn't do anything the set can't already do perfectly well in other ways. Whirlpool is a maybe depending on what else is in the build. Aqua Bolt and Water Jet are key parts of the single target rotation. Water Burst and Geyser are your major AE abilities. You want Tidal Forces to pump up Geyser. Dehydrate and Hydro Blast have the same basic purpose: another attack to consume time between Aqua Bolts/Water Jets. There are some ways to use neither of them, but you tend to need specific support sets/pools and it often leads to an annoying rotation. In terms of deciding between them, the issue is normally whether you need the endurance management. Theft of Essence allows you to make Dehydrate 'endurance negative', so you can reduce your endurance consumption dramatically. However, Hydro Blast will generally create higher dps rotations tat are simpler to manage (since there is no risk of Hydro Blast consuming Tidal Power).

City of Heroes doesn't really have 'end game content'. The gear tread mill of other games isn't present in CoH - you can get almost anything you need from the standpoint of character development in a fire farm if you're so inclined. So when people talk about 'end game', they're mostly talking about arbitrary challenges they've chosen - and those arbitrary challenges probably aren't the same as another player might choose. The game is also 'broken' in teams/leagues with full Incarnate powers since these permit pushing to the game's numerical limits. As a result, it's a bit pointless to talk about optimizing for such play. So whenever you talk about the best way to approach a build, you need to be very specific about what content you're optimizing for - simply saying 'end game' isn't sufficient.