Hjarki

I'd start by cautioning you that while */Kinetics may seem like a high damage build for a Corruptor, it normally doesn't work out that way for a variety of reasons. The first is that Kinetics has almost no decent slotting options. For virtually all of the powers, there are either no set bonuses or you're forced to choose between useful set bonuses and useful set pieces. You end up using a lot of plain vanilla IOs - which essentially 'wastes' slots that you want to use to make your build more powerful. Not addressing these slotting challenges when talking about 'most damage' means any answer you'd come up with would be meaningless. Given the enormous demands on defense necessary to Fulcrum Shift yourself (rather than just pets/melee), I'd strongly recommend you work up a build that solves all of your issues to see what can be done rather than just taking a naive look at the Blast sets. The second is that Kinetics takes enormous amounts of time away from a Blast set. Ultimately, you'll be spending 30% of your time on Siphon Speed alone. Add in Siphon Power/Fulcrum Shift and you probably only have 30% of your total activation time available to Blast (which severely hampers your damage). That's why you routinely see Mastermind Kinetics builds that don't even have attacks (just pet powers/buffs) - there's no time to use them. It's also why Kinetics on a Corruptor/Defender is somewhat rare compared to Kinetics on a Controller/Mastermind at 50. For most Defenders/Corruptors, a pairing with Kinetics is dissonant: the combination is less potent than the sum of the parts. They really just end up being glorified buff/heal-bots rather than meaningful sources of damage. And if you're going to play a buff/heal-bot, you should probably just play a Defender. While it's nice to theorize about perfectly laid out spawns when you get maximum Fulcrum Shift every use, the game is a bit more messy and having the bigger numbers means your melee will spend a lot more time at the +damage cap. So, assuming you still want to do Kinetics, let's talk about what constitutes 'most damaging'. Except in special circumstances, you can safely ignore almost everything in the blast set except: The ultimate. This is really why players want to play Kinetics - for the 'big boom' effect. However, you need to recognize that even after the Fulcrum Shift, you're probably dealing less damage than your Blaster buddy. Rains. Conventional AE is rarely going to make the cut in a Kinetics build because you just don't have time for it. Rains are unusually potent with Scourge and have tremendous damage per animation. Your two best single target attacks. You can't realistically run anything close to a full rotation, so you're really only concerned about you two heaviest-hitting attacks. Voltaic Sentinel. This is a unique ability and, frankly, probably not a very good one (note: I haven't tested it under the new PPM system - it might be much better now). The virtue of the Sentinel is that it keeps attacking even when you aren't, so its value scales up dramatically when you're not attacking much. From that, I'd say that Electrical Blast and Beam Rifle would be 'second tier' sets. They've got unique features (the Sentinel and the -regen/resist on Disintegrate/Piercing Ray), but don't match our overall criteria. Either of these sets would probably also work better as the 'buff/heal-bot' Defender version - the Electrical version in particular could be built as a sapper where you're less concerned about the actual damage you deal and primarily concerned about zero-ing out Endurance. Water is a possibility, but it takes an unconventional approach to make it work and managing the rotation is tricky so let's ignore it. That leaves Ice and Fire (I'm skipping the other sets for a variety of reasons). In terms of single target, the performance is similar. Fire also imposing a significant constraint on slotting in that you need to reach +22.5% to hit for Blazing Bolt to become a useful part of your rotation. Ice also gains an edge due to throwing single target Holds alongside its damage. For AE, the two Rains are equivalent. Fire has Fireball to back up the Rain, but it's unlikely you'll get much use out of it because you won't have the time to use it and it's too low on your AE priority list. About the only time you'll find it worthwhile is on AE farms with all-boss spawns. That leaves Blizzard vs. Inferno. Blizzard is significantly safer than Inferno. Not only does it prevent the spawn from striking back, but it can be used at range. It will also deal more damage than Inferno due to Scourge. On the other hand, the recharge is longer. This may or may not matter. Generally, ultimates are more about 'how many spawns per use' than exploiting incremental improvements in recharge. With Blizzard, it's almost always going to be 1 use per 2 spawns. For Inferno, it might be one use per spawn. There's also the issue that playing Kinetics as a Corruptor means you want to self-Fulcrum Shift - so the fact that you can operate safely at range isn't all that meaningful when you need to close for the Fulcrum Shift anyway. But overall, I'd argue that ties go to Ice Blast. Fire brings nothing but damage, so it had better have a hefty lead to justify using it. In contrast, Ice brings a lot of non-damage utility so when the damage is equivalent, Ice is a better choice. The slotting options for Ice are also significantly better than those for Fire since you can actually mule some of the attacks for a variety of set bonuses.

Pine's stats on Flame Mastery are incorrect. It's 16 sec recharge and has higher base dpa than any of my actual attacks (barring the special mechanics on Water Jet). On my Ice/Time Corruptor, I actually use it as my third main attack - although this has more to do with the value of stacking Holds than damage (you lose some of the damage advantage since you can only Unbreakable Constraint one of the Holds). However, there's some loss of immediacy since that means I have two DoT (which probably diminishes Scourge by a minor amount since the damage from one attack hasn't finished by the time the next lands). I do love Coercive Persuasion, but I'm not sure I want to take (and 6-slot) a power I'm never going to use just to take advantage of it. On the current iteration, I also ditched Snow Storm/Rise of the Phoenix for Gale/Assault. Gale with Explosive Strike (more than) replaces the Ranged Def I lose from RotP and Assault nudges the damage up a bit. Since Corruptors have to take Gale, this is probably a good technique for them as well (the Gale part, not the Assault part). I don't use Gale all that much, but it's fun to throw around 16+ KB every now and then - and it's not like I used Rise of the Phoenix much either. I go back and forth on Snow Storm. The only time I ever used it was to knock fliers from the air. However, I can use Water Burst and Geyser to do that as well (albeit less efficiently) and it's a rare enough occurrence that I'm willing to suffer through the gap - if my ability to own the air fails, I can always fall back on Hurricane. I'm less concerned about scatter than AV/GM. If I'm going to fight an AV/GM, I almost inevitably need someone else to either taunt it into place or Immobilize it. Otherwise, it just runs away from the Tornado - and out of Freezing Rain/Lightning Storm range. This has a devastating impact on the amount of damage I can deal. I haven't actually tracked it. However, I know I want to turn Knockback into Knockdown and I want a Force Feedback proc. The only other things I need to slot for Tornado are damage and maybe a smidge of recharge or endurance reduction. Once I've done that, might as well fill it out with procs. It doesn't seem like they proc all that often (Tornado is technically an AE power, so its proc chance is likely reduced by area factor), but more than 0% is probably sufficient. To some extent, Tactics saves on the need for investing in Accuracy. Since I don't use purple sets, I don't have a whole lot of stray +accuracy from them. In terms of endurance, Ageless solves that problem. Also, as a Defender, I get more advantage (for both myself and the team) from the Leadership buffs. I tried out the Immobilize proc and didn't find it useful. I suspect it's only a MAG 2 Immobilize and the proc chance is too low to matter. Bear in mind that the "every 30 sec" will drop to "every 15 sec" by the time you're fully tricked out at 50. But even at 30 sec, you're still getting the equivalent of +16% global recharge (+100% with ~16% uptime). I should also point out that if you look at the build I posted earlier, one takeaway is how incredibly cheap it is compared to most level 50 builds. The two full ATO sets are probably 75% of the cost of the entire build. The procs appear to work fairly well on activation, but poorly on the continuous damage - meaning that casting Tornado directly on your target becomes a priority. I tend to think of boosting Ranged Defense in terms of return-on-slots. Consider: BotZ in Fly: 1.25% for one slot (0.625% per slot) BotZ in Hover: 1.25% for two slots (because the free slot is used by LotG) Explosive Strike in Gale/Hurricane: 1.88% for two slots (0.94% per slot) Full Lockdown or Thunderstrike: 3.75% for five slots (0.75% per slot) Coercive Persuasion or ATO: 5% for five slots (1% per slot) Gaussian's: 2.5% for five slots (0.5% per slot) +Defense enhancement in CJ/Hover (on a Defender): 0.5% per slot If you're trying to go with Obitus' route of both AoE and Ranged, you'd need to add the cumulative. For example, Gaussian's is significantly better if you're concerned with AoE slotting.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 2.22 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Defender Primary Power Set: Storm Summoning Secondary Power Set: Water Blast Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Flame Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: O2 Boost -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), NmnCnv-Heal:50(3), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx:50(3), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg:50(5), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(7) Level 1: Aqua Bolt -- Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg:50(7), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(9), ShlBrk-%Dam:30(9), TchofLadG-%Dam:50(11), GldJvl-Dam%:50(11) Level 2: Snow Storm -- PcnoftheT-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow:50(A) Level 4: Water Burst -- SprVglAss-Rchg/+Absorb:50(A), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(13), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg:50(13), ImpSwf-Dam%:30(15), PstBls-Dam%:50(15), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(17) Level 6: Steamy Mist -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(23), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP:50(23), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx:50(25) Level 8: Freezing Rain -- SprFrzBls-Rchg/ImmobProc:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(48), RechRdx-I:50(48) Level 10: Whirlpool -- SprDfnBst-Rchg/Heal%:50(A), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(17), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg:50(19), SprDfnBst-Dmg/Rchg:50(19), SprDfnBst-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(21), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(21) Level 12: Hurricane -- ExpStr-Dmg/KB:20(A), ExpStr-Acc/KB:20(50), ExpStr-Dam%:20(50) Level 14: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB:50(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx:50(45) Level 16: Hover -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A) Level 18: Fly -- BlsoftheZ-Travel:50(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx:50(43) Level 20: Afterburner -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A) Level 22: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A) Level 24: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(25), Rct-ResDam%:50(43), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(43) Level 26: Tornado -- SlbAll-Dmg:50(A), SlbAll-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), SlbAll-Dmg/EndRdx:50(27), TchofLadG-%Dam:50(29), AchHee-ResDeb%:20(29), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(31) Level 28: Water Jet -- Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg:50(31), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), ImpSwf-Dam%:30(33), GldJvl-Dam%:50(33), Apc-Dam%:50(33) Level 30: Tidal Forces -- GssSynFr--Build%:50(A) Level 32: Lightning Storm -- Thn-Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(34), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34), GldJvl-Dam%:50(34), ExpStr-Dam%:20(36), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(36) Level 35: Char -- Thn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg:50(36), Thn-Dmg/Rchg:50(37), UnbCns-Dam%:50(37), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%:50(37), NrnSht-Dam%:30(39) Level 38: Geyser -- SprVglAss-Dmg/Rchg:50(A), SprVglAss-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(39), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), PstBls-Dam%:50(40), Ann-ResDeb%:50(40), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(40) Level 41: Fire Shield -- GldArm-3defTpProc:50(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(42), UnbGrd-Max HP%:50(42), UnbGrd-ResDam:50(42) Level 44: Rise of the Phoenix -- Erd-%Dam:30(A), Erd-Dmg:30(45), Erd-Dmg/Rchg:30(45) Level 47: Tactics -- GssSynFr--ToHit:50(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx:50(48) Level 49: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(50) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Clr-Stlth:50(A) Level 1: Vigilance Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End:50(A), Mrc-Rcvry+:40(46) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%:50(A), PrfShf-EndMod:50(46), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg:50(46) Level 50: Intuition Radial Paragon Level 50: Ion Core Final Judgement Level 50: Ageless Core Epiphany Level 50: Spectral Core Flawless Interface Level 50: Assault Radial Embodiment Level 50: Cimeroran Core Superior Ally ------------

On the Defender, there's no real choice. On a Corruptor, I'd argue for Ice Blast. Presumably you want Ice Blast/Bolt with Impeded Swiftness, Gladiator's Javelin and Apocalypse; Bitter Ice Blast with Impeded Swiftness, Gladiator's Javelin and Cloud Senses; Freezing Ray with Unbreakable Constraint (and pick two with options for Smashing, Psionic and Toxic). On Ice Blast, those three procs are +162 damage on a 68 damage attack. Presuming you have 150% damage (or so) and accounting Scourge for an additional 10% damage, that would be ~350 damage per attack or ~190 damage per animation. Ice Bolt slotted the same way would yield +82 damage on a 42 damage attack, which (using same assumptions) would be ~200 damage per attack or ~170 damage per animation. That being said, there is an inherent (and difficult to quantify) advantage for Corruptors in having small, light attacks because they're more likely to Scourge. Not being stuck in animation might also be a decent reason to go Bolt > Blast. I went with the same approach until I realized I was dedicating 6 slots to a power that, realistically, only needed 2. I'm currently fiddling with Storm/Water and I dumped the 6-set ATO into the Rain. You can do the same thing with Ice. I'm still not sure on the math for proc-on-damage abilities in Rains, but I haven't had much luck with them. I'm playing around with Superior Frozen Blast in Freezing Rain to see if it's worthwhile (I haven't been able to find any information on this particular proc, so it's more a "does this work?" than anything else), but I haven't found any proc-on-damage abilities that are worth slotting in Rains. I tend to agree. I'm basically immune to everything except AE attacks coded as pure AE (Rikti Pylons are an example) and ranged -defense debuffs. Given the combination of staying at range, massive -hit debuffs, knockback and hold, defense failures are mainly an issue of not paying attention. As noted above, I shifted over to Storm/Water - and a lot of the slotting options are similar. I can't open your build (I linked mine complete - it's too complex to data link export and the copy/paste function doesn't work for me), but your description makes it sound like you're not pursuing the course I am (maximizing proc damage). For solo'ing, I think either Leviathan or Electric pool is necessary to keep enemies in the Rain. I'm experimenting with Spectral/Frozen Blast to see if that's enough, but I'm not all that hopeful. For group play, I think embracing the chaos makes for an easier build. Some things you may not have considered for your own build: Pacing of the Turtle in Snow Storm. I use a single slot in Snow Storm (which you mentioned you skipped) for E/R/S PotT since that's sufficient to cap Slow, so I might as well get the (minor) additional bonuses. Explosive Strike in Hurricane. Hurricane doesn't need to be slotted at all to work well. I've played around with 4-slot DWD, but I settled on 3-slot Explosive Strike because the +1.88% Ranged Defense is more valuable to me than the 6.25% recharge. Tornado slotting. I use 3-piece Soulbound Allegiance and triple procs here and it seems to maximize the value. Rise of the Phoenix. I use Flame Mastery so I can re-purpose Char into a single target attack (see notes above on how effective Holds are proc-slotting), which isn't something Ice needs to do. However, it also comes with a PBAoE attack that doesn't require you actually go into melee range - and can thus 3-slot Eradication. Besides, it's amusing to slot a self-rez for maximum damage. Tactics vs. Kismet. It takes roughly the same number of slots to reach the same +hit with Kismet vs. Tactics (at least on a Defender), so might as well give the bonus to the entire team. In terms of the set selection, I've always liked Ice for Corruptors (my main on Live was an Ice Corruptor) due to the double Rains. However, the inability to effectively slot procs in Rains worries me with Ice. With Water, I get the same basic Rain (Whirlpool vs. Ice Storm) but my ultimate can pile on near-guaranteed procs. Since the bulk of the damage doesn't occur until after the procs, Annihilation can be used to ramp up the damage by 20% or so. Geyser is also a bit more time-convenient than Blizzard since it's up every spawn rather than every other spawn. Water Jet is one of the most proc-friendly attacks around since it has a 10 second cooldown, but can be used ~4 times every 10 secs or so without any internal recharge. Whether this is enough to offset the overall poor damage is a coin-flip. I also think the proc-heavy approach yields more damage. As inferred by the numbers at the top, those procs can constitute ~40% of your single target damage even on a Corruptor.

+recharge isn't very useful because it doesn't change most players' rotations - and thus doesn't increase dps. There are relatively few builds that can use incremental improvements in recharge over the recharge they already designed into their build. If you're the one providing the recharge, you can plan your build around it. But you can't plan your build around having a pocket Kinetic, so everyone just slots for the recharge they'll need. Granting them an extra +50% recharge normally isn't enough to produce a different rotation so they just end up with the same rotation - and powers coming off recharge more quickly than they actually need. There are a few builds that do profit from arbitrary amounts of additional recharge up to the cap. However, they're almost always support builds. If you can multi-stack long recharge powers, even small improvements in recharge can reap dividends. But for virtually all of the dps builds, it's not very useful once the IO slotting is complete. It's requested for farming runs, not AV/GM fights. Even then, it's normally requested for a single reason: Fulcrum Shift. While the debuff-centric sets tend to be better damage multipliers in an AV/GM fight, your Spines/Fire Brute isn't going to wait for you to lay in multiple debuff fields before engaging a spawn - and the spawn will be dead long before the weight of stacking debuffs weighs in. Moreover, Fulcrum Shift allows that Brute to operate (somewhat) independently. In contrast, the debuff-centric sets require them to (a) be able to hold the spawn together in those fields (remember, melee have very small AoE radii compared to Blast sets) and (b) have the Defender with them at all times. Turning AV/GM into kittens isn't actually all that useful. For squishies, the damage dealt by AV/GM is meaningless compared to the control effects. For melee, their own armor sets tend to mitigate damage more than sufficiently. Probably the most useful AV/GM debuff Kinetics brings is actually Siphon Speed because the unresistable Slow can lock AV/GM in place. Acid Mortar has two significant issues facing it: Self-stacking. Cold, Storm and Dark all 'self-stack'. That means their primary -resist debuff can be layered on multiple times. In early levels, this isn't apparent. But when you're running perma-Hasten levels of recharge, it becomes a very significant factor. So while Acid Mortar may seem like it's comparable to Sleet, Freezing Rain and Tar Patch, it's only about a third their value in a long AV/GM fight. Clunky mechanics. The entire Traps set is an ode to great abilities with serious quality-of-life issues and Acid Mortar is no different. If you're fighting a single target, then it can be effective. Not as effective as, say, Poison, Nature, Thermal, Trick Arrow, Sonic, Radiation or Time (much less Cold/Dark/Storm). But decent enough. If you're fighting an AV/GM in the middle of a crowd on minions, those Acid grenades are frequently wasted on random minions rather than the AV/GM. To some extent, the game can be thought of as having three stages: Defense stage. In the early levels, players struggle to even survive. This is where abilities like shields and various Control sets really shine because they prevent the damage that would kill even your tank. Endurance/Recharge stage. In the mid-levels and prior to IO set slotting, players struggle with their abilities not coming up often enough and finding the endurance to power them. DPS stage. After IO slotting and at level 50, players struggle to maximize their damage output since they've already solved the two problems above. Endgame AV/GM tend to exist in that last stage, which places a premium on support sets that can be force multipliers. It especially places a premium on debuffs > buffs because buffs have a relatively low cap compared to the virtually unlimited room for debuffing resist and while debuffs affect all of your damage buffs only affect a portion of it.

I might go with something like: http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1493&c=702&a=1404&f=HEX&dc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really like Leviathan for both thematic reasons (Water Spout) and the fact that Hibernate doubles as a self-heal and endurance management mechanism. I skipped Spectral Wounds because it's not as good as Arcane Bolt. I skipped Deceive because I've never found single target Confuse all that worthwhile except as a CP mule - it simply takes too long to do anything useful. I skipped Flash because it's just unnecessary. Over on the Storm Summoning side, skipping Snow Storm means that fliers will potentially give you trouble. Skipping the mediocre Thunder Clap loses you nothing - a Mag 2 PBAoE Disorient just isn't going to help you. The single target damage rotation (Blind/Arcane Bolt) can be shorted on slots if there's a need for slots elsewhere - it's not terrible important anyway.

For testing purposes, you should be able to slot Touch of Lady Grey into Slowed Response. Unlike the -resist procs, you'll get a visual indicator whenever it procs and it should demonstrate whether your theories on the proc rate are accurate.

In my mind, soft-capping is your #1 priority. Soft-capped builds are the ones who can survive catastrophes to pull off an unexpected win. Soft-capped builds are the ones that can take the lead when they're 50+3 and their groupmates are 49s. When people look at a build and say "wow! I've never seen anyone do that", 99% of the time they're talking about your soft-capping. Compared to this, eeking out another 5% dps isn't particularly important. In terms of incarnate abilities, this is normally an inefficient way to go about soft-capping defenses. On most builds, half or more of your defenses come from set bonuses (which aren't improved by alpha). Many of the rest of your bonuses are already pushed to ED, so that +20% is more like +15%. Take together, that means you're getting about the same defensive bonus from alpha that you'd get from another set bonus. If you re-arranged your build, you could probably hit soft-cap without using your alpha - and be able to use your alpha to push the capabilities of your build even further. Likewise, the various temporary boosts available via the other incarnate abilities work much better for offense than defense because intermittent boosts to offense are useful while intermittent boosts to defense just mean that you'll have times when you need to step back because your defenses aren't sufficient.

It's not just the Brute or Tanker - it's every melee AT. Even for non-melee AT, your knockback will frequently transform a massive AE blast into a piddling single target blast because you just knocked the anchor point of their AE across the room. There are very few groups where your uncontrolled knockback won't result in the group performing less effectively.

It's 'popular' because it's effective. Taking apart spawns with AE attacks is significantly faster than having to take down every mob one by one. In many high level groups, your Brute or Tanker can just as easily solo the content you're doing. Now, if your contribution helps them solo faster, that's one thing. But when your contribution is to reduce their effectiveness, why would they want to bring you along? Builds with uncontrolled knockback do precisely that.

I run Dual Pistols, so I've got a target AE and the ultimate which both have knockback (I believe the Cone also has knockback, but I don't take that). I could slot single target attacks for knockback, but this would take the place of a proc. I also don't have all that much time for single target attacks between Lightning Storm, Freezing Rain and Tornado activations - probably half (or more) of my available activation time is consumed with those three powers. This is roughly what I'm running atm: Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 2.22 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Defender Primary Power Set: Storm Summoning Secondary Power Set: Dual Pistols Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: O2 Boost -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Heal(3), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(3), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(5), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(5), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(7) Level 1: Pistols -- Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg(7), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(9), AchHee-ResDeb%(9), TchofLadG-%Dam(11), ShlBrk-%Dam(11) Level 2: Snow Storm -- Slow-I(A) Level 4: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(A), BlsoftheZ-ResKB(13) Level 6: Steamy Mist -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(13), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(15), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(15) Level 8: Freezing Rain -- SprDfnBst-Rchg/Heal%(A), SprDfnBst-Dmg/Rchg(17), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg(17), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), SprDfnBst-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), SprDfnBst-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21) Level 10: Swap Ammo Level 12: Hurricane -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 14: Hover -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 16: Bullet Rain -- SprVglAss-Rchg/+Absorb(A), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg(21), SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(23), PstBls-Dam%(23), ImpSwf-Dam%(25), FrcFdb-Rechg%(25) Level 18: Fly -- BlsoftheZ-Travel(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(27) Level 20: Suppressive Fire -- Lck-%Hold(A), Lck-Acc/Rchg(27), Lck-Rchg/Hold(29), Lck-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(29), Lck-Acc/Hold(31), Lck-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(31) Level 22: Afterburner -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 24: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 26: Tornado -- SlbAll-Dmg/Rchg(A), SlbAll-Dmg/EndRdx(31), TchofLadG-%Dam(33), FrcFdb-Rechg%(33), OvrFrc-Dam/KB(33), ExpStr-Dam%(34) Level 28: Executioner's Shot -- Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg(34), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(34), ImpSwf-Dam%(36), TchofLadG-%Dam(36), Apc-Dam%(36) Level 30: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(37), Rct-ResDam%(37), Rct-Def/EndRdx(37) Level 32: Lightning Storm -- Thn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), GldJvl-Dam%(39), ExpStr-Dam%(40), FrcFdb-Rechg%(40) Level 35: Piercing Rounds -- SprVglAss-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), SprVglAss-Dmg/Rchg(40), SprVglAss-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), ImpSwf-Dam%(42), PstBls-Dam%(42), Ann-ResDeb%(43) Level 38: Hail of Bullets -- Erd-%Dam(A), Erd-Dmg(43), Erd-Dmg/Rchg(43), Arm-Dam%(45), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(45), FrcFdb-Rechg%(45) Level 41: Charged Armor -- UnbGrd-Max HP%(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(46), GldArm-3defTpProc(46), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(46) Level 44: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 47: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 49: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Clr-Stlth(A) Level 1: Vigilance Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), Pnc-Heal/+End(48), Prv-Absorb%(48) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(48), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(50) Level 10: Chemical Ammunition Level 10: Cryo Ammunition Level 10: Incendiary Ammunition Level 50: Intuition Radial Paragon Level 50: Ion Radial Final Judgement Level 50: Reactive Core Flawless Interface Level 50: Storm Elemental Radial Superior Ally Level 50: Ageless Core Epiphany Level 50: Assault Core Embodiment ------------

You're missing the elements of uptime and stacking. Poison's debuffs don't self-stack and have 100% uptime, so that's easy - your numbers are accurate. Cold has two debuffs. One - Sleet - can self-stack and be made overlapping. The other - Heat Loss - takes considerable effort to get 100% uptime. If you've actually managed to do so, then you'll have 30% from Heat Loss and 60% from the two stacking Sleets for a total of 90%. (Note: Storm Summoning also has -resist debuffs figures in this range due to the self-stacking issue).

I didn't mention them for the same reason I didn't mention such powers for other sets - they're not terribly relevant. What is relevant is the damage multiplier that can be applied by a power set - and Kinetics' drops significantly when you only have a single target (to the point where it can't really compete with debuffing sets). Every set has nice perks like this. However, the aggregate of them isn't very important compared to the damage multiplier.

It wouldn't actually cost you a purple set bonus - you'd just need to find someplace else to put it. I don't think damage procs work particularly well with Lightning Storm (or Tornado) - they certainly can't take advantage of the disparity between inherent recharge and actual recharge like your click powers can. Part of reason I slot my Lightning Storm with FF is to give me that recharge in long single target fights. In general AE fights, I've got AE attacks with FF that give me the same benefit.

- Scourging Blast. Splitting this across two powers gets you the recharge bonus twice and is often worthwhile. - Bullet Rain vs. Empty Clips. This is - to me - a baffling choice. Empty Clips, like all cones, is tricky to use and rarely results in significant AE damage. Bullet Rain can be used at full range and hits 16 targets rather than 10 (and is far more likely to hit a large number of targets). - Force Feedback +recharge. Slot these in Bullet Rain/Empty Clips and Hail of Bullets. It will greatly increase your average global recharge. - Procs in general. Pretty much every single target attack on my Dual Pistols character is 3-slot Thunderstrike + 3 procs. The entire point of playing Dual Pistols is to gain access to all those procs, so you should take advantage of it. Basically, you’re using your attacks as mules rather than using them to deal damage. - S/L Defense. I’m not a particularly big fan of S/L builds because they tend to have huge problems with status effects (which are rarely S/L-based). You’re fairly close to 45% Ranged Def on the build, so you’d probably be better off going for straight Ranged. That being said, it’s a bit tricky on a Corruptor who has no defensive boosts from their secondary. I can see a few places where a slot would gain you the BotZ 1.25%. You can get +1.56% by re-slotting Hail of Bullets or by going with Soul Drain in Epics. - Super Jump. I can’t see any reason to take this power - it’s completely useless at 50 if you’re not using it to qualify for Acrobatics since you can simply replace it with prestige powers (and since you need the ability to Fly for Shadow Shard anyway, you will be replacing it with prestige powers).

I'd view Force Feedback +recharge procs in Tornado/Lightning Storm as effectively mandatory on a Storm Summoning build. Between the two of them, you're probably looking at 50% or more extra global recharge over time.

Kinetics isn't very good against a single target. +damage buffs are generally inferior to -resist debuffs because while the latter affects everything, the former only affects the basic damage of your attacks. Furthermore, there's very limited 'upside' to such buffs. On the Defender themselves, it's very likely that you'll only be getting a 60% boost even if you're hitting the cap - which likely only translates into ~35% improvement in damage (it's better for the dps-oriented AT). Against a single target, Kinetics doesn't even deliver that because you're only getting a single bonus from Fulcrum Shift. It's potentially possible you'll cap our Defender still, but you're not going to be pushing Scrappers and Brutes to the cap.

However, it doesn't have self-stacking -resist debuffs - which is why it amplifies damage much less than some other sets do.

In general, the debuff-centric sets work better against AV/GM than the buff-centric ones. The most important debuff is -resist. Not only does it amplify damage but it's effectively unlimited in its utility - it's basically impossible to floor -resist on an endgame AV/GM even with a full league. Storm, Cold and Poison lead the pack here, followed by Dark. The second most important debuff is -regen. Unlike -resist, you can floor regen so having more -regen that necessary isn't all that useful. Thermal and Radiation are the best here, followed by Cold and Dark. This is primarily a matter of uptime (duration vs. recharge). Most of the other debuffs are irrelevant (or, at best, marginally relevant) since they get so heavily resisted and you generally don't care about their effects all that much. For secondary, Beam is probably the best choice since it combines the ability to usefully slot Achilles' Heel and Annihilation while also bring another -20% resist attack and a -150% regen attack. Dual Pistols has all those features except the -regen. Sonic can theoretically debuff -resist a bit better if you can run a full attack chain, but this doesn't happen often with Defenders since you need to spend time on your primary. That being said, bear in mind that there is no 'perfect set'. For example, none of the secondaries above are particularly good at AE damage. Of the primaries I mentioned, Storm is probably the only one you'd really want to play as a Defender. Dark Affinity (Controller) is significantly better than Dark Miasma - so much so that it seems a waste to choose Dark on a non-Controller. Poison works a lot better for Masterminds since it's more practical to send your pet into melee range to debuff resist than to do it yourself. Cold tends to work just as well as a secondary (aside from being forced to waste a power on the mediocre Infrigidate) and all those ally buffs tend to encourage play with a pet-centric AT. Radiation is more of a solo set than anything else - most of its key abilities tend to be clunky and unwieldy in a team setting. Thermal is another ally-centric set that generally works better when you bring your own allies with you (i.e. pets). Sets like Nature and Time can also be considered candidates. They don't have nearly the same level of anti-AV/GM hate, but they're generally strong sets that have a minor focus on dealing with solitary hard targets. You should also be aware that while sets such as Storm, Cold and Dark have a lot of useful features for AV/GM fights, they're often a terrible choice for soloing AV/GM because they depend on location AE that an AV/GM will simply stroll out of. It's possible to fix this with Epic/Patron pools and Immobilize, but that requires making some serious compromises. Not only are the Immobilizes available to Defenders not particularly good, but they don't tend to be in pools/sets that you'd otherwise consider taking.

Not a particularly accurate one. The difficulty is that the amount of damage you deal depends greatly on the build - how you slot your character and what Incarnate abilities you choose. Two major factors you don't see until you're comparing actual builds: 1. Defenders soft-cap much easier. Unless you're building a pure 'glass cannon', Corruptors generally need to make an enormous investment in defense that precludes them from optimizing their offense. In contrast, Defenders can explore all sorts of options that increase their dps because they've already solved the defense problem. 2. Defenders buff/debuff much better. The builds you see really making an impact at level 50 are ones with support sets that act as damage multipliers. However, those damage multipliers are larger for Defenders than Corruptors. Note: Tar Patch (Dark) and Sleet (Cold) are the same whether primary or secondary. Fulcrum Shift (Kinetics) is better for Defenders, but since you can reach +damage cap on either, the set tends to work better for Corruptors. We should also recognize that the majority of the 'conventional wisdom' you see right now hasn't adjusted to the changes (Sniper attacks, PPM and knockback) and is instead based on how people remember the game when it is Live - so you're going to see a lot of opinions that are based on not realizing what can be done now. Comparing dps is also difficult. The two most common metrics - AE farm times and Pylon tests - don't work well except in very controlled circumstances for Corruptors and Defenders. With Pylon tests, the widely varying levels of -regen throw off dps calculations (which were designed with Scrappers and other non-debuffing ATs in mind). With AE farms, the inability of most Defenders to contain a spawn while AE'ing it means that clear time isn't remotely reflective of dps output. That being said, the highest dps builds between the two AT tend to be Defenders. You can also follow a general rule of "Defenders for AV/GM, Corruptors for large crowds".

With Sonic, I think that splitting both ATO sets makes a good deal of sense if you can afford losing the ranged defense. This not only gives you 10% recharge twice, but 10% range twice - and that range is crucial for the cones. Doing so gives you the first three slots of your two basic attacks and your two AE damage effects. Unfortunately, the only non-unique proc that can fit Sonic's attacks is the Toxic proc. That lack of proc ability is one of the reasons I shifted to Dual Pistols. With Dual Pistols, you can get 20% for 10 sec, Achilles' Heel and Annihilation (on 4 degree cone with an extremely low AF). While there are stacking issues (primarily with Achilles' Heel - almost no one else can usefully equip Annihilation due to the AF issue), the total -resist debuffing is similar to what Sonic can do - but the damage from your attacks is enormously greater because you can triple-proc all of your single target attacks. You also get a FF engine with the target AE. Admittedly, the near-useless ultimate on Dual Pistols is a negative for the set, but Sonic's ultimate isn't really much more than a debuff/control option at this point.

Soul Drain doesn't affect Tornados and Lightning Storms. The only damage buffs they can receive are those slotted into them.

To some extent, you can break down fights into two basic types: single target and multi-target. Multi-target fights are when you approach a spawn and deliver a massive burst of damage against the entire group. In such a fight, an Ice/Kin Corruptor is arguably the best in the game at delivering this burst (without outside help) because they can be at the damage cap while using the most powerful of the ultimates. However, this is something of a unique trick to this particular pairing. Nothing outside of Fulcrum Shift will allow you to consistently hit the damage cap and nothing outside of Blizzard works as the delivery mechanism for the damage since its the only ultimate that can Scourge when used against full health foes. However, it's worth noting that the Blaster in your team will be more effective than you since they'll also gain the benefit of your Fulcrum Shift - it's just that you're better at it solo. However, it's worth noting that this sort of multi-target damage tends to diminish in importance in team settings at 50 because everyone has a Judgement. When you're the one guy on the team that can wipe out an entire spawn, it's impressive. When you've merely got the 9th way to wipe out the spawn on the team, less so. For single target damage, tools like Fulcrum Shift and Soul Drain aren't particularly worthwhile. You also tend to have far greater dependance on non-damage components like procs in your single target attacks. Here, the highest damage for a Corruptor would probably be either Beam/Storm or Dual Pistols/Storm, where you can couple -resist and damage in primary and secondary to maximize your damage. That being said, the Defender versions of those builds will normally be higher damage than the Corruptor versions. That being said, these builds will suffer solo without the ability to keep enemies in the -resist patches (slow resist is very common amongst enemies at 50).

These are the numbers in-game (Level 1, but they scale the same): Ice Bolt: 9.5/1 = 9.5 Ice Blast: 15.58/1.67 = 9.3 Freezing Ray: 20.9/1 = 20.9 Bitter Ice Blast: 21.66/1.07 = 20.2 Bitter Freeze Ray: 26.22/2.5 = 10.5

Ice/Dark will also have higher damage. The main issues are Rains, procs and debuffs. Blizzard is simply better than Inferno. It does more damage natively - and does a great deal more once you account for Scourge. It's also significantly safer than Inferno since it can be used at range and you can pump its damage (via debuffs) after it has already paralyzed a spawn's ability to hurt you. While Ice doesn't have a counterpart to Fireball, the fact the 4th best AE attack on your Fire Corruptor is more effective than the 4th best AE attack from your Ice Corruptor ends up being not terribly important at 50. Procs are the next issue. Consider Bitter Ice Blast. It does ~200 damage with damage bonuses. If you've also got it slotted for Apoc/Impeded Swiftness/Cloud Senses, that will approximately double this. While you can slot Blaze with Apoc/Javelin, it's still not going to do as much damage as your BiB. The single target disparity only deepens once you realize that you can only slot 1 Apocalypse proc - and that leaves you with only Javelin/ATOs for the rest of your powers (and you probably can't slot the ATOs optimally since you need the set bonuses). The last issue is the fact that Dark has a -30% resist debuff on 2:1 recharge:duration while Time has a -22.5% resist debuff at 3:1. With perma-Hasten levels of recharge, that means all of your damage on */Dark Corruptor will be about 20% higher than the */Time Corruptor (at least for long-term static fights). Bitter Freeze Ray is a high damage attack, but not a particularly high DPA attack - it's not appreciably different from your basic attacks. Arguably, Char (from Flame Mastery) is a better choice since it's equivalent dpa, also a Hold and has a lower activation time (Corruptors thrive on tiny, fast attacks rather than big, slow ones due to Scourge).