Hjarki

Envenom and Weaken are technically AE, but they're melee-range AE. That being said, they're probably the best 1-2 punch for crippling an AV/GM out there. They're just less effective against large spawns. Unfortunately, that's pretty much where the tree ends up being worthwhile. Alkaloid is like a bad version of O2 Boost - which is no one's candidate for a fantastic heal. Neurotoxic Breath is a far less effective -speed debuff than virtually any other found in support sets. Rezzes, pure status removal effects and single target Holds are generally amongst the powers people skip in support sets. Poison Trap is an AE Hold - but it's an AE Hold done in the most clunky manner possible (as a Trap). Nor does the set have any sort of Stealth to help you place that trap. Venomous Gas would be a great effect... if it weren't a PBAoE toggle. These sort of effects just tend to get players killed. What inevitably happens is you stroll in melee range to apply your debuffs - and then you get stunned/held/slept, turning off the toggle and removing the effect that was keeping you from getting crushed. Contrast with Nature. Nature has the same sort of debuffs, but one of them (the defensive one) is a ranged toggle. Nature's healing can heal the player themselves (in multiple ways). Nature's rez doubles as a heal. Nature can also self-buff resist, +damage and endurance management.

The key distinction is that Rain effects summon a pseudo-pet that then delivers the attack.

Frostwork, no question. I cannot stress how worthless Snowstorm actually is. Against single hard targets, it gets resisted down to almost nothing. Against large groups of enemies, it's mostly redundant with Sleet. Against fliers? It just doesn't work past a certain level because the -fly is insufficient and can't be self-stacked. Snowstorm also offers no valuable slotting opportunities. Slow sets are generally poor. In contrast, even if you never have a good work for Frostwork, you can still 6-slot it with Preventative Medicine or Numina's.

They're Sudden Acceleration (not available in Pines) to eliminate the knockback. I'm currently running Spiritual, Storm Elemental, Ion, Degenerative and Support.

In general, the PBAoE in Blast sets isn't very important with one exception: the ultimate nukes. These are critical components of the toolkit. Of the sets, Dark, Dual Pistols, Energy, Fire, Psychic, Radiation and Sonic are PBAoE. Archery and Assault Rifle don't have true 'ultimate' attacks. Beam Rifle, Electrical, Ice and Water all have ranged AE ultimates. However, Blizzard bears special mention here. It not only has the largest base damage of any ultimate but it's also a location AE rain. This means that, unlike the other ultimates, it will Scourge a significant portion of its damage - so the actual damage of Blizzard is 30% more (or so) than you'd expect just examining the numbers. Being a Rain with significant debuffs also means that you can lay debuffs across the area in relative safety after you use Blizzard to shut down the enemy. There's also the issue of target caps - in that location AE don't have true target caps. Rather, each tick they select a number of enemies up to the target cap. As a result, Blizzard can be used against much larger crowds than any of the other ultimates.

It's actually a much better heal than people often give it credit for. While it's small, it recharges more quickly than other single target heals and additionally removes status effects. As a result, wakies are far more useful with you around (since you can get the player up more quickly by removing the stun component). While other support sets have anti-status effect powers, they're rarely taken. However, it remains an ally-only power that does nothing to benefit the player using it (other than slotting opportunities).

Take Flares, Blaze, Blazing Bolt, Rain of Fire, Fireball and Inferno. Aim is up to you. There's a long post on the Corruptor forums detailing a Fire/Time/Dark Corruptor that contains most of what you'd need to know about Fire. In terms of Corruptor vs. Defender, I'd generally call Fire a 'Corruptor set' because there's no particular advantage in taking it as a Defender. However, I'd also call Storm Summoning a 'Defender set' because it tends to be more effective for Defenders. So it's a bit of a wash.

That cycle can't actually repeat due to the 8 sec cooldown on the double Water Jet. So what you're actually doing is WJ -> D -> HB -> WJ -> WJ -> D -> HB -> WJ -> D - and that second Dehydrate eats the Tidal Power you wanted for the upcoming Water Jet. Coupled with the fact that you are going to miss 5% of the time, this means you'll often run into a sequence where Water Jet and Hydro Blast are recharging and you have nothing to do except Dehydrate (losing your stacks). I think recharge and slow tend to be plenty (accuracy is for the damage, not the debuffs). However, some people like to slot it for damage.

- Try splitting Scourging Blast 3/3 across two different powers to get the recharge bonus twice. - Slotting the Shields with more than LotG recharge is normally a waste. Since you don't have pets, you're just buffing other players - and those other players probably have nearly capped defenses (if not absolutely capped) where they need them. Add in the Incarnate abilities and most players won't even care about your Cold shields. - Slotting Arctic Fog for resistance is a bit odd. Normally its slotted for Defense because it's the largest defense power you have while the resistances are rather rare ones to encounter. - Hasten definitely doesn't need three recharge IOs. In many builds, a single 50+5 is used. - Steam Spray isn't all that great a power. Most builds skip it. - Benumb is where you want that recharge you have in Hasten. You want Benumb always ready when you need it. - A Force Feedback proc in Geyser is not unreasonable. For that matter, one in Hydro Blast isn't unreasonable. - You need Aqua Bolt to make the rotation work. You cannot realistically use Dehydrate as your 'third nuke' because it eats the Tidal Power you need for other purposes and Tidal Power is not deterministic (you only get it if you hit). - "chance for -resist" procs in area effect powers rarely make any sense (although they are a popular choice). Random -resist procs on an AV/GM matter because there's time for them to work. When you randomly proc them on a minion in a herd, you're just ensuring that one particular minion dies a fraction of a second before all the others. - You're probably going to need some endurance reduction in your defensive toggles. - If you've got the powers/slots, Frostwork is a good mule for Numina's or Preventative Medicine (both of which can provide some nice bonuses).

While Electricity may be thematically appropriate, it isn't a particularly good blast set overall and there's no real synergy between it and Storm Summoning. In terms of Blast sets, I'd rank them (for power-gaming, not thematic appropriateness): 1. Sonic. This leads the list for all Defender builds, but it's really above and beyond with Storm Summoning. Because Storm Summoning does so much damage in primary, amplifying that damage via your secondary puts it into the stratosphere for single target damage - I'm not sure that Storm/Sonic Def is the highest single target support build but it's definitely in contention. 2. Ice. This does less damage than Fire, but it's got Holds and a better ultimate attack. 3. Fire. For anyone with a Blast set, Fire is always on the list for its raw damage potential. 4. Dual Pistols. This doesn't have the damage potential of the above three sets, but it's a generally solid Defender set with a versatile set of debuffs. 5. Beam Rifle. Another 'Defender' set due to the debuffs, I don't think it works particularly well here but is worth mentioning. Water is thematically appropriate, but it really starts to lag at high levels. For Storm Summoning: Skip: Gale. This is a slow activation, low damage power that has better versions in many of the blast sets. Snowstorm. I think people imagine this power to be a lot better than it is. In 99% of cases, it's simply redundant with Freezing Rain. In the case of fliers, it's a nice idea - but it stops working around level 35 when -1.6 Fly is no longer sufficient to ground most enemies and you need either a higher magnitude -Fly or repeated applications (impossible with a toggle) of a -1.6 Fly ability. Because Storm Summoning is so ground-dependent, being able to ground fliers is important but you'll either need an Epic/Patron Power for this or rely on allies who can do it far better than you. Thunder Clap. Another terrible power. A MAG 2 PBAoE Disorient really does nothing for you except potentially get you killed. Coinflip: O2 Boost. I think it would be foolish not to take this on a Defender and it gives you slotting opportunities for the heal sets. However, some people don't like taking purely 'ally' powers like this. Take: Steamy Mist. This is your best source of defense and a good place for defense/resist IO set one-offs. It does require significant endurance reduction to keep running. Freezing Rain. A core power of the set. It can be slotted for damage, but it isn't a significant source of damage. I prefer to simply slot slow/recharge. Hurricane. This is a lot less useful at higher levels (where many enemies stroll through the repel easily), but it's still a massive hit debuff. 4-slotting DWD seems standard. Tornado. Another core power, I like 4-slotting Expedient Reinforcement with KB->KD and Force Feedback proc. It's a major source of damage, but the knockback has to be reduced. Lightning Storm. The last of the core powers, it's just another single target nuke - admittedly one with a huge dpa. It gets less use than Tornado because it's a static emplacement that has value due to its long duration. In terms of pools: Speed: This is almost universally taken for Hasten, but Super Speed + IO Stealth transforms your minor Stealth to complete invisibility. Leadership: It's hard to justify a Defender without this pool and it also has two places to slot LotG recharge. Victory Rush can also help ameliorate endurance issues in long fights (albeit not long fights against single tough bosses). Jumping: Combat Jumping is a fantastic power. It's low endurance for a decent amount of universal defense. The rest of this pool isn't all that great. Super Jump is generally a waste of a power - if you can't get some place with Super Speed + Combat Jumping, you probably can't get there with Super Jump either. Acrobatics is tempting, but it's an end-heavy way to get Hold protection (KB protection is available via IO). Medicine: A tempting pool for a set that can't self-heal. However, between health/ATO procs, inspirations and high defense, self-healing becomes less of an issue. The healing in this pool is just terrible. Presence: Nothing worthwhile here. Fighting: Another tempting pool. However, you need to throw away a power on Boxing/Kick to get access to defenses that, frankly, you probably don't need and can't afford end-wise. However, it's understandable that builds include this. Teleportation: I think this entire tree has been mostly been rendered superfluous by prestige powers. The only power that really retains its overall utility would be Teleport Foe - and while you can play some neat tricks with Hurricane, I'm not sure it's worth the bother. Flight: The main reason to take this is for Hover and the two LotG slotting opportunities. You don't actually need to fly - prestige powers can manage that - but Hovering is incredibly valuable for the combination of defense and low end cost. Sorcery: The reason to take this pool is Rune of Protection (basically a re-usable Break Free). However, you effectively have to throw away two powers to reach it because no one really fights in Mystic Flight and you can simply replace its travel value with a prestige fly pack. For Epic/Patron Pools, I think most of the traditional choices are poor. You don't really want to be flying into a mob of enemies to Soul Drain them, for example. Mace Mastery is probably the best choice if you can deal with low S/L resists. My Storm/Sonic in Mace Mastery config has capped S/L/E and capped Ranged, so there's almost nothing that bothers him (there aren't all that many melee attacks without a slashing, lethal or energy component). However, the key feature here is an AE -10 Fly Immobilize. Not only does it contain some of your chaos, but it fixes those problems with enemies who refuse to land. Leviathan Mastery is also an option, with a single target (repeatable) -1.6 Fly Hold, a Cone Immobilize and Hibernate (self-healing).

The 'tiers' were more about the general power/versatility of the set rather than specific applicability to any one archetype. In general, the more pet-based your build becomes, the more it favors multi-target healing and buffing - and the less it favors tools like multi-target debuffs - because you want abilities that travel with your pets rather than travel with you (obviously, this doesn't apply if your pets are non-buffable like Illusion's Phantom Army). I don't play Masterminds all that much, so I don't know the exact numeric breakdowns on all of the sets. I'm also not sure I'd recommend Mastermind as an archetype at level 50. If you're just planning to solo, they're not bad. However, in team/league-based content, you run afoul of several problems: - The well-known blocking effect where the pets interfere with actual players trying to do their job by creating a impassable wall of pets. - Fights that require exercising a degree of control (think not killing protesters during TPN) tend to preclude the use of Mastermind pets (and thus render Masterminds almost worthless). - Virtually all high-end Task Forces require bypassing enemies, which generally means you need to put away the pets. - It's often difficult to make pets durable enough to operate usefully in AV/GM fights.

Snow Storm gets resisted into nothingness against AV. Likewise, I've never seen Snow Storm knock a high level flier out of the air. -1.6 fly simply isn't sufficient. You either need repeated applications of -1.6 fly (impossible with a toggle) or you need something like a -10 fly. If you're going to ground fliers, you really need to bring a Blaster/Controller or you need to grab something from Epic Pools to do it. Potentially, yes. For a Storm Summoner? It offers little. Those extra hit points give you time to heal. So when you've got a big heal with a modestly long recharge, it makes sense. But O2 Boost is a small heal with a lightning fast recharge. You don't really need that breathing room. Frostwork is mainly taken by Controllers/Masterminds whose pets do need a bit of a boost. In terms of the original questions: 1. Focused Accuracy is an end hog that does little for you. 2. The entire medicine pool is junk. Slot your ATOs, get some healing set procs and eat some inspirations. Most importantly, bulk up your defenses and don't get hit. 3. Afterburner. This is a LotG recharge mule. I suppose it's nice to fly faster than anyone else, but travel at the high end is less about flying from place to place than alternating prestige power teleportation. It could potentially be used as a Personal Force Field-style effect, but you're probably already Ranged Def capped and it doesn't provide resistance. 4. Kick/Tough/Weave. These are normally a bad idea. You have to waste a power - which Water absolutely can't afford - and you get S/L resistance you probably don't need coupled with defenses that could be gotten more cheaply elsewhere. 5. Leadership. Leadership contains two LotG recharge mules and no one is forcing you to run those toggles - just use them when needed. 6. Teleportation. This entire tree is largely replaced by prestige teleports in the endgame, so unless you just want it for solo it's not normally much use.

I think that, philosophically, increasing Blast set single target damage by a minor amount isn't necessarily a bad idea. The basic dynamic of melee for single target, ranged for multi-target remains even after the Sniper changes. However, I'm not sure I'm onboard with the changes in terms of Blast set balance since it makes Fire Blast overwhelmingly powerful compared to other sets. Given the relative uselessness of most Blast set secondary effects, losing them to deal pure damage is a choice that most builds - especially Blaster and Corruptor builds - would make. I think a more reasonable change would be to leave Sniper attacks as-is, but change Aim-style abilities to additionally remove interrupt time (for everything) while active.

Cold Domination's three core debuffs are the -regen on Benumb, the -resist on Sleet and the -resist on Heat Loss. Of these, only Heat Loss is better on a Defender. The other two are the same between the two archetypes. That's why I described Cold Domination as a 'Corruptor set'. It's similar to Dark in this sense. You've got key debuffs in -regen and -resist that are the same either way, so it makes more sense to take it as a Corruptor. In most cases, the debuffs on Blast sets aren't particularly important. The single target debuffs get resisted into meaninglessness against any target you care about and the best AE debuffs are generally attached to otherwise weak attacks/sets. Sonic is an exception, which is why Sonic Blast is such a common set for Defenders. Synergy means that two effects create more than the sum of their parts, not merely the sum of their parts. Fire/Kin or Kin/Fire are merely the sum of their parts (at best, see below). Fire is just a generic Blast set with relation to Kinetics and Kinetics is just a generic buff set with relation to Fire - none of their effects interact in any unusual way to provide an exceptional benefit. Contrast that with what I think OP should really be looking at: Water/Cold Corruptor. Cold has no self-heal. Water does. Cold has minimal control effects. Water is loaded with them. Cold has area debuffs. Water has delayed damage rain-style effects that allow you to place them safely. Cold has long recharge debuffs. Water has knockback attacks that allow slotting FF IOs. Cold is a set that requires virtually no in-fight interaction. Water is a set that requires a great deal of it. Those are synergies. You're getting extra value by combining abilities across sets rather than those sets merely providing their normal benefit. In my mind, Fire/Kin Corruptor is a dissonant mix. The entire reason - the only reason - to take Fire Blast is to deal damage. But while Kinetics boosts your damage substantially, it does so at the expense of hindering your rotation. A */Kinetics build generally spends 40%+ of its time working with Kinetics. While that doesn't translate directly into a 40% loss of damage (because the attacks you skip are your weak attacks rather than your strong ones), it does mean that you're removing the very reason you took Fire Blast in the first place: to deal direct damage. Kinetics also doesn't provide the one buff Fire Blast absolutely needs right now: +hit. That means you need to spend additional effort to make your Snipe part of your standard rotation. Fire Blast also does nothing to cover Kinetic's defensive weakness. A Fire/Kin Corruptor is forced into melee, but has no way to stay alive there. So you need to waste an enormous amount of your I/O slotting to make it work. It's easy to say "oh, look - best Blast set combined with best damage buffing! That's synergy!". But it's not. Fire/Kin (or Kin/Fire) is actually a weaker combination together than it would be brought by two different characters who had more appropriate pairings. That's part of the reason I claim Kinetics is a "Controller set". Not only do Controllers have the tools to enter melee range safely for Fulcrum Shift, but they don't actually need to do so because the bulk of their damage generally comes from pets anyway. Controller sets are also not particularly busy - they don't need all that much time for their primary so the busy-ness of Kinetics doesn't detract from what they're doing.

Fire/Kin isn't really a 'pairing' since there's no particular synergy between the sets. Fire Blast is simply a strong offensive set for anyone who can take it. Kinetics is arguably better for Corruptors than Defenders due to the higher +damage cap. However, it's extremely hard for Corruptors to manage the kind of defenses that would enable them to reliably reach that damage cap via Fulcrum Shift. In general, Kinetics tends to be a much stronger set for Controllers/Masterminds than it is for Corruptors/Defenders because Kinetics is primarily a melee buff set - and Controllers/Masterminds bring their own melee to buff.

I'd probably aim for something like the following: Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Controller Primary Power Set: Illusion Control Secondary Power Set: Time Manipulation Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Blind -- SprOvrPrs-Rchg/Energy Font(A), SprOvrPrs-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(3), SprOvrPrs-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(3), SprOvrPrs-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(5), SprOvrPrs-EndRdx/Rchg(5), SprOvrPrs-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(7) Level 1: Time Crawl -- Acc-I(A) Level 2: Temporal Mending -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Heal(7), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(9), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(9), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(11), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(11) Level 4: Arcane Bolt -- Apc-Dam%(A), Apc-Dmg(13), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(13), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Apc-Acc/Rchg(15), FrcFdb-Rechg%(17) Level 6: Mystic Flight -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(48) Level 8: Superior Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A) Level 10: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(43) Level 12: Group Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(48) Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 16: Distortion Field -- Slow-I(A) Level 18: Phantom Army -- ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(19), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(19), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(21), OvrFrc-Dam/KB(21), RechRdx-I(23) Level 20: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(34), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(43), Ksm-ToHit+(43), LucoftheG-Def(46) Level 22: Flash -- UnbCns-Dam%(A), UnbCns-EndRdx/Hold(23), UnbCns-Hold(25), UnbCns-Hold/Rchg(25), UnbCns-Acc/Hold/Rchg(27), UnbCns-Acc/Rchg(27) Level 24: Rune of Protection -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48) Level 26: Spectral Terror -- SprWiloft-Rchg/Dmg%(A), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(29), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(29), SprWiloft-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(31), SprWiloft-EndRdx/Rchg(31), SprWiloft-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(31) Level 28: Farsight -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(33), Rct-ResDam%(33), Rct-Def/Rchg(33), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(34) Level 30: Deceive -- CrcPrs-Conf%(A), CrcPrs-Conf/EndRdx(34), CrcPrs-Conf/Rchg(36), CrcPrs-Conf(36), CrcPrs-Acc/Conf/Rchg(36), CrcPrs-Acc/Rchg(37) Level 32: Phantasm -- ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(37), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(37), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), FrcFdb-Rechg%(39), FrcFdb-Dmg/EndRdx/KB(39) Level 35: Slowed Response -- AchHee-ResDeb%(A), Acc-I(50), TchofLadG-%Dam(50), TchofLadG-DefDeb/Rchg(50) Level 38: Chrono Shift -- Prv-Absorb%(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(40), Prv-Heal(40), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(40), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(42), Prv-Heal/Rchg(42) Level 41: Indomitable Will -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 44: Mind Over Body -- Ags-Psi/Status(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(45), UnbGrd-Max HP%(45), UnbGrd-ResDam(45), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(46), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46) Level 47: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Containment 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 2: Rest -- IntRdx-I(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(17), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(42) Level 50: Intuition Radial Paragon ------------ Note that the Phantasm slotting should include Sudden Acceleration (to remove the knockback) rather than Force Feedback. Pine's just doesn't support the former. In the above, I skip: Spectral Wounds. I find this to be a weak power. While it's necessary at lower levels, the ability to slot FF procs into Arcane Bolt is a big plus. While Blind/Arcane Bolt isn't a particularly complex (or high damage) rotation, Illusion Controllers normally don't depend on direct nuking. Time's Juncture. I don't find this ability particularly compelling. The slow features are replicated by the (far safer) Distortion Field and any time you actually need -damage, you're probably fighting something that you have no business being that close to. Besides, the Army itself is invulnerable so you don't really care about -damage that much. Temporal Selection. This is just a bad ability that I can't see using even on a pet-based build. Time Stop. While it adds a stray bit of extra -regen, having a second (inferior) Hold just isn't all that useful given that the cycle time on Blind is around 1/8th of its duration. Powers that aren't really all that great: Deceive. This is useless outside of solo play, but Coercive Persuasion is just such a nice set that it makes sense to pack it in. Flash. Normally AE holds are junk. However, this is a high recharge build and Unbreakable Constraint is a nice set. Superior Invisibility. Perma-Group Invisibility is available, so there's little reason for this. However, the alternative would be to take Super Speed for stacking Stealth and Superior can slot LotG-recharge. Some particular notes: Blind. Since Blind is both a Hold and a Sleep, it makes sense to slot one of the ATOs there. Spectral Terror. Since Fear sets are, by and large, not very good it makes sense to slot there other ATO there. Phantom Army/Phantasm. Eliminating the knockback from these pets is actually quite important for a group setting. However, unlike with similar powers, it won't improve their damage any (since they don't tend to chase enemies they knock back). Chrono Shift. Slotting this for healing has nothing to do with actual healing - it's just that they're solid set bonuses. Psionic Mastery lets you get near-100% uptime on status protection between Rune of Protection and Indomitable Will. Otherwise, Primal Forces (for Power Boost) is another common choice to drive the Farsight defensive boost into the stratosphere (and save some slots on boosting defense elsewhere) - Primal Forces would be the more group-friendly choice (since your allies would benefit from the additional defense) but I find "gather for X buff" rarely works in practice.

I'd argue yes. You've manage to pick probably the two most Corruptor-friendly sets in the mix. While people think of the shields as part of Cold Domination, they actually aren't the important part. Indeed, it's relatively common to use those shields purely as LotG mules and not bother to improve them much (if at all) because they're generally somewhat superfluous as you level up. Rather, the important parts are the last three powers - the debuffs. However, the key components of both Benumb (-regen) and Sleet Storm (-resist) are the same whether you're a Corruptor or Defender. Given that, you might as well be a Corruptor. Ice Blast's secondary effects aren't generally very important. It's holds are - and these are the same between Corruptor and Defender. Unrelated to this, Ice's AE damage is based on Rain effects - and Rain effects are peculiarly strong with Scourge. Let's say you walk into a crowd and cast Inferno. It has no chance to Scourge because it's hitting full health targets. Now you use Blizzard on the mob. The initial ticks don't Scourge. But the ticks at the end do. As a result, Blizzard gets about 30% more damage than you'd expect. A similar (but smaller scale) issue arises with Ice Storm.

Both Pines and the in-game numbers reflect that Freezing Ray is the highest dpa single target power in the set. In contrast, Bitter Freeze Ray is primarily a Hold. I think the main problem with Ice is that the attacks are so fast that it's tough to do a rotation with enormous amounts of recharge. You'd need +300% recharge to use Ice Bolt like Fire uses Flares. Right now, Ice Blast is (potentially) the second highest damage single target Blast set and has the hardest-hitting ultimate. However, the rankings will depend a lot on where they land with Sniper changes - the reason Fire Blast has such an enormous lead in single target damage right now is the combination of a Sniper shot and a Superior damage short-range attack. On Live, both these attacks had significant limitations. On Homecoming, those limitations have been removed.

I don't take it at all because Shockwave in my secondary is simply better. Arguably, I could create a 'perma-flop' rotation with the two where nothing ever got to stand again. However, even without /Sonic, I'm not terribly impressed with it as a power. It's very slow to activate and does virtually no damage. Given that your Tornados and Lightning Storms are already doing the job of keeping enemies flopping around, Gale seems superfluous - especially on a Defender (who isn't forced to take it). I think it's one of those powers that seems really nice at low levels, but once you get the complete set it just ends up being a waste. For a Corruptor, it makes a bit more sense. They're forced to take it, so they might as well get some use out of it.

This is a very unreliable approach. There will always be enemies that add unexpectedly or decide to stay out of range of your debuffs. However, the fact that Power Boost + Fade gets you more than halfway to soft-capping all defenses and the right build is probably hard-capped (or close to it) on S/L resist means that your Darkest Night is just gravy. Currently, I'm tinkering around with options that work without Power Boost (because the rest of Primal Forces is rather uninspiring) to see if I can work with Stone (for HP) or Psychic (for status resist).

This build definitely works better as a Defender. With the Defender, you're running (conservatively) -100% resist. The same cycle on the Corruptor would be -75% resist. So the Defender gets a 15% damage bonus over Corruptor there. Then you have to consider that Tornado and Lightning Storm are significant portions of your damage - and they're the same damage for both (no Scourge, no Corruptor 12.5% base damage bonus over Defender). Solo, it's a lot better due to the +30% Vigilance bonus as a Defender. In groups, the additional -resist overwhelms the additional damage a Corruptor might do. In terms of AE, it's generally the standard ultimate/judgment routine as any high end character. In terms of survivability, all the Storm Summoning powers tend to make it hard for non-bosses to act. Slotting KB -> KD into Tornado ensures the Tornado doesn't fling them away but simply flops them around while grinding away on them - you don't really need push mobs around very much. There's also a fire-and-forget quality to it where you can simply let your pseudo-pets finish the fight while you move onto the next one.

I think the "why not a Corruptor" question could be summed up as: Corruptors are only better than Defenders for very specific builds (most of which are fairly weak). The only advantage to a Corruptor is damage. This has three components: 1. 12.5% better nukes. 2. Scourge 3. 500% damage cap rather than 400%. #3 only matters if you're Kinetics - and, even then, it probably doesn't matter except if you're building a pure farm toon who is always fighting purpose-designed content. #1 and #2 could potentially matter. However, the additional buff/debuff values from Defender, the 30% solo bonus for Vigilance and the fact that those additional buff/debuff values amplify your team as well mean that the damage add for the Defender version of a build is almost always greater than the damage add for the Corruptor version. Especially when you consider how little value Scourge actually brings to the table for non-AV/GM fights in most builds. Even aspects of the sets that you wouldn't think would matter do. Consider a Time/* Defender vs. a */Time Corruptor. The former has 6% or more overall defense due to Farsight once you've taken into account factors like Power Boost. That translates into not having to slot defense and instead being able to focus on amplifying your damage more. Likewise, there are any number of abilities where the Defender can potentially consume one less slot because their base values are better. I can't think of many builds that aren't better as a Defender than a Corruptor, but one might be Water/Cold. Two of the key debuffs (Benumb and Sleet Storm) have their essential features the same rather than using reduced Corruptor numbers and there aren't any aspects to Water that really work better as a Defender - while Rain effects tend to work better for Corruptors than expected. Ice/Cold would probably also fall into this category. I tried a lot of different builds and ending up preferring my Storm/Sonic (posted elsewhere on these forums) - it's an absolute beast in terms of damage/soloability and really only has trouble with fliers/slow resistant enemies (an issue I could fix via Epic pools if I so choose). Some others I think are fairly strong choices: - Nature/Ice. Nature is a control-light set, while Ice is a control-heavy one. However, Ice Blast in secondary takes a long time to mature. - Time/Beam. This is really a 'play at 50, grind to get there' build. Once you've got Judgments and full IO sets, the lack of decent AE aside from the ultimate is meaningless and you're just left with great single target performance and debuffs from your Blast set. - Kinetics/Dual Pistol. To compensate for the non-existent defenses of Kinetics, you really need a lot IO and some careful slotting. However, it's relatively cheap slotting because you've got all the recharge you need. Dual Pistols is a set that can operate effectively when half of what you're doing is using Kinetics buffs/debuffs. I think if you're going to play a set that primarily revolves around healing/buffing others, you're better off playing a Controller or Mastermind (both of whom gain personal benefit from those Ally-only abilities via their pets). Likewise, some sets - like Dark Miasma - are so much better in the hands of another (in this case, Controllers) that it's hard to justify taking them as a Defender.

Going anything but Sonic tends to be 'sub-optimal' unless you're trying to make a purely solo build due to the -resist debuffs. I think Beam is worthwhile - especially once you hit 50+ and 'AE damage' is largely just ultimates and incarnate blasts. Because it packs both -regen and a bit of -resist, it can be useful support. Dual Pistols has the same benefit - it can debuff resist a bit (as well as damage, depending on your selection). Fire Blast is the highest overall personal damage in most cases, though.

Using Power Boost (Primal Forces) in conjunction with Fade will provide ~+10% Defense(all). You can also take the S/L Resist toggle on top of this. It's tough to justify taking a pool that only provides a marginally larger amount of S/L-only Defense.

For defensive purposes, you'll probably want Thunderstrike in your single target attacks. Your AE attacks don't have particularly good sets, but you can split your ATO across both (the one with the 3-slot recharge) and slot Force Feedback there. Your other ATO also gives strong bonuses and can be placed in the Rain. Cold Domination doesn't require much in the way of slots. You've got the shields to mule all the defense set procs. Steamy Mist can mule the resist set ones and you've got 3/5 powers for LotG. None of the debuffs require much slotting - mainly accuracy/recharge - and unless you want damage procs, there aren't all that many worthwhile sets to put there. I'd recommend some slow in Sleet Storm just so you can keep minions from running away. In all likelihood you'll find yourself short on powers and long on slots, which will affect pool selection.