Hjarki

I was tinkering with a Dual Pistols Corruptor and I noticed that Suppressive Fire with non-lethal ammo still had a 20 sec recharge. Wasn't this supposed to be changed in the last patch?

I agree with the notion of Radiation. It's just generally the best Resist set for across-the-board resists. You can make yourself impervious to not just damage but virtually all debuffs as well (with clever slotting/power picks). The fact that it's recovery and recharge benefits allow you a very versatile choice of secondary is just a bonus. Super Reflexes is also a contender. Between the ability to hit Relentless soft-cap on all positionals and the scaling resists that - again with clever slotting/power picks - can hard cap resists at a still-sustainable health total, an SR Tanker can really handle most anything before your allies weigh in with their buffs.

In general, you need about +70% damage above what you could expect from just slotting your attacks with +damage for a Scrapper to start pulling ahead of a Brute. If you're at the damage cap, the Scrapper would deal about 18% more damage. In contrast, even at the damage cap, a Brute would be dealing about 10% more damage than a Tanker. Where Tankers can out-perform Brutes is with AE attacks. If you've got enough targets, a Tanker's Cone will deal 35% more damage than a Brute's even with just basic +100% internal damage.

A strong argument can be made for Super Reflexes. While you can't stroll around with passive Relentless soft-cap like a Tanker does, you can still easily reach levels of Defense more than sufficient for ordinary play. Moreover, since almost all of your resists come from set bonuses or scaling resists (which are the same for Tanker and Brute), you're about the same toughness on that front as well. The Brute ATO (regen/end) tends to be more practical than the Tanker ATO (+resist).

Time/Ice is solid but it's really have to justify running Ice Blast as a non-Corruptor. Time/Water works well, especially since you no long have to fiddle around with the 8 sec internal cooldown on Water Jet. However, my favorite is probably Time/Seismic. While you have to figure out a 5th LotG mule, Seismic has amongst the highest single target dps and the delayed impact on Meteor works perfectly with Slowed Response.

I don't know that the issues are 'performance' so much as the set is utterly dependent on Storm Cell and that limits it greatly. You end up moving at pet speed rather than player speed while needing a moment to set up while everyone else is blasting. My suspicion is that most of those who really love Storm are primarily playing solo and don't fully grasp the frustration of your group leaving you in the dust.

Savage is, in my opinion, one of the top tier melee sets. While solo-only metrics such as Trapdoor runs or Pylon tests aren't going to show the impact of the set, being able to run with +20% recharge/EndRed from your melee set is a huge advantage for building solid all-around characters able to take on more than trivial content for time tests. In terms of using the set, I almost never take either Hemorrhage or Rending Flurry. Because you get locked out of the entire Blood Frenzy mechanic if you consume 5 stacks, these attacks tend not to be worth their payoff. While you can carefully play around consuming stacks at <5, it's impossible if you ever activate Blood Thirst. For AE, Savage Leap is a fantastic ability. On a Stalker it's especially nice since you can Build Up and then crit from Hide as your opening move. Combat Teleport makes precisely jousting with this ability much easier (since you can macro the exact distance you need to move to maximize your leap), but it might not be practical for many builds. Shred is only really a good ability on a Tanker, so you'd normally want some form of AE in your armor set to augment Leap. On a Tanker/Brute, I'd normally recommend Maiming/Vicious/Gloom as the rotation while Stalkers can just do a relatively straightforward Savage/Maiming/Savage/Assassinate mix.

Not to interfere with the griping and fanboying, but does anyone have a clear idea how procs work in Storm Cell? From what I can see, procs in the baseline powers (Cloudburst, Gust, etc.) do not translate over to the Storm Cell nukes. Procs in Storm Cell should work, but it seems like the 25 yard radius would be punitive on the proc chance.

In City of Data, the -damage component of Kinetic Melee attacks is independent of the Power Siphon mechanic. With that in mind, your "30s up/30s recharge" notion works for the +damage because the buff has a 10s duration. Even if Power Siphon were necessary, the debuffs on the three early single target attacks are all 5s or less, Burst/Focused Burst are 7s and Concentrated Strike is 8s. In terms of the overall theory, I think people are trying to force an inefficiency rather than optimize an efficiency. -damage is of somewhat limited use because damage resist on enemies is the most common type of resistance and you have to stack that on top of purple patch reductions. In four-star content, you're further penalized by the inherent +damage of the enemies. In a situation like Against All Odds where the -damage is merely a supplemental characteristic of an otherwise strong power, fine. But there's no way to pile up enough -damage on a Tanker to make much of a dent in any situation where you'd actually need to reduce damage. Ice Arrow + PGA is 70% -damage. The resistible/irresistible -25% of it depends on the situation but it means that the -damage doesn't scale up with -resist just as it doesn't scale down with +resist. Nature is 60% -damage. Poison is 56.25% -damage. Kinetics can easily hit will over 100% -damage between Siphon Power and Fulcrum Shift on a single target but it doesn't have any internal -resist.

Rain of Arrows (Sentinel) does 3 ticks of this: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=pets.rainofarrows_sentinel.rainofarrows&at=minion_pets

Sentinel ultimates generally do ~195 damage while Rain of Arrows does ~185 damage. However, Rain of Arrows hits 16 targets over a 25 yard radius while conventional Sentinel ultimates hit 10 targets over 20 yard radius and only do maximum damage within an 8 yard radius. Given that Sentinel ultimates line up with Aim, they're structured to reliably be a massive alpha strike on every spawn - and Rain of Arrows is arguably the best of them for this purpose.

I'd argue that it should really be a PBAoE Toggle. The power is so central to the performance of the set that putting it on a 90 sec recharge just makes the set as a whole clunky in team play. At low levels, it won't recharge fast enough to use regularly (and you'll easily out-run it). Even at higher levels, you run into a situation where you have to lay in a power before you can really start attacking.

Storm Summoning generally works better on a Defender. In general, Defenders are better for everything except raw damage. However, with Storm Summoning, a significant portion of your damage comes from Storm Summoning itself and the numbers are equivalent/better on a Defender. Defenders are also a lot easier to build effectively than Corruptors since they get better numbers on all of the support elements (defenses, endurance, etc.) I haven't played enough with Storm Blast to really render a solid opinion but my initial impression is that it's not a particularly good combo with Storm Summoning. Storm Blast relies heavily on its location AE. While these location AE may come with slows attached, those slows are normally going to be insufficient to keep mobs contained within them if you're at range. Moreover, your Tornado is going to scatter enemies out of the fields. So while it may be thematically appropriate for Storm Summoning, I think Storm Blast really works best on a Sentinel where you can stand within your own fields. On the other hand, the old standby of Water Blast remains thematically appropriate while getting a big boost. Removing the cooldown on Water Jet dramatically improves the set. In a 7 sec cycle of Aqua/Hydro/Aqua/Jet/Jet, you're able to fire procs twice (including double-tapping your Apocalypse) in that window. With three standard procs and Apocalypse, this is around 70 dps just from the procs on Water Jet.

Let's start with the single target rotation. I have the Defender values handy so I'll use those (it's just a damage scale difference for Corruptor): Incinerator (no -def): 32.454 dpa Incinerator (-def): 40.920 dpa Burst: 32.861 dpa Slug: 37.424 dpa Sniper: 84.010 dpa What this means is that Burst(x2), Slug, Sniper is the same dps as Incinerator (no -def), Slug, Sniper. The later rotation requires about 60% more recharge (but still below perma-Hasten recharge) but is a bit more proc'able (due to having no short recharge powers). However, if your target has -def from another source - such as Acid Mortar - you get to use those Incinerator (-def) numbers and that second rotation becomes around 8% better than the first. The second rotation also has the virtue of being more 'balanced' - by which I mean that the damage/activation of your powers is much closer together. This makes your rotation more predictable when picking off strays. In terms of AE (using Corruptor numbers this time) at perma-Hasten, we have: Flamethrower: 32.196 dpa, 10.297 dps Buckshot: 35.941 dpa, 11.900 dps M30: 20.312 dpa, 6.139 dps Full Auto: 52.921 dpa, 7.496 dps Now, Full Auto is a lot better than it looks from those numbers because much of the time you'll be using it with Aim + Gaussian's (I'm not sure whether you skipped Aim because Mid's doesn't support it or because you purposefully decided not to take it). Buckshot is also a lot better than those numbers indicate because the incredibly low recharge coupled with knockback makes it an ideal Force Feedback choice. So it's not just the best dps AE you have - it's actually about 20% better than that. It does bearing noting that unless you plan to live your life at +4, unsuppressed knockback on an AE is problematic. M30 is by far the weakest AE option but there's a definite qualitative advantage to a standard AE vs. a Cone. I didn't list Trip Mine because dpa/dps doesn't really reflect what it does very well. However, I'd argue that if you Aim/Gaussian's + Trip Mine + Full Auto, there isn't going to be much left to AE afterwards so taking every AE from primary isn't necessary - especially when you're slotting them for effect rather than bonuses. Additional notes: Caltrops. While this can definitely slot a lot of procs, it's rarely useful to do so. Not only are static patches like this poor return on value for procs, but Caltrops in particular actively discourages proc'ing by forcing enemies to flee from the area. I'd just use this for set bonuses and area control rather than try to turn it into some sort of gimpy AE. Triage Beacon. I find this nearly worthless as a power so the only real benefit would be set bonuses. However, I'm not sure Preventative Medicine is worth taking an otherwise weak power and, even if it were, there are likely better options. In general, the players who benefit from regen are Tankers (who have the health pool and defenses to support it) and your Triage Beacon probably won't be anywhere near them. Poison Trap. This is another "don't like it much" power. The -regen is far too short-lived to have a meaningful impact and even proc'ing it out doesn't make it a reasonable AE damage power - especially given you have Trip Mine a bit further down the tree. Seeker Drones. I actually like this power quite a bit. One of the major problems with debuffs is that they consume activation time at the start of the fight. So if you've got multiple debuffs, you're probably only going to get to use one of them outside of an AV/GM fight. However, Seeker Drones are activated long before you start the fight and stay with you so they're 'free' in some sense. While the actual effect of Seeker Drones isn't particularly awe-inspiring, the fact that they can slot the excellent Cloud Senses tilts them over into the win column for me. Trip Mine. This is again the unsuppressed knockback issue. Even on +4, you're probably going to throw the entire spawn in all different directions.

Some notes: Moonbeam/Zapp do 30% more damage in most any reasonable build than you're indicating - even before you account for the additional purple damage proc. You only get that 15% critical chance when you're not exploiting the ATO proc. You can also look at it in terms of rotation. A rotation of Cobra, Storm(x2), Crippling, Assassin yields about 80 dps with no slotting. A rotation of Eagle, Storm(x2), Crippling, Assassin yields a bit less (79 dps) with no slotting. The reason this occurs is that the second rotation takes a lot more time to accomplish and thus minimizes the impact of the high dpa parts of the rotation. It's similar to the issue that arises with procs: you're not accounting for the hugely punitive impact of that long activation time. Martial Arts is not a good fit for Stalker. You lose both of the key features of the set (the exceptional Dragon's Tail and the +defense on Storm Kick) and end up with mediocre ST damage coupled with non-existent AE damage. Even if you're deciding to take Martial Arts on a Stalker for thematic reasons, your build shouldn't be including Eagle's Claw.

You don't really "proc monster" non-max builds. For most AT, you generally get more return from +damage below ED levels than you do from non-purple procs. Moreover, optimizing a "proc monster" is largely about exploiting the difference between internal/external recharge - and you don't get enough external recharge until you're at/near max level with full set bonuses. Also, part of the reason the "proc monster" threads petered out is that while understanding proc mechanics can be helpful, the value add for non-support AT tends to be low. To make those "proc monsters" work you need a lot of external recharge coupled with low damage attack powers. For melee AT, this normally isn't the case so unless you're designing a single-purpose character (farm character, want to impress people with your pylon build, etc.), you tend to just stick with opportunistic procs rather than trying to cram 4 procs into a single power.

The Scrapper version of Eagle's Claw may have lower intrinsic dpa, but the additional critical actually makes it higher effective dpa than Cobra Strike. So the Stalker actually has a nerfed version of Eagle's Claw compared to the Scrapper. Nothing in your post indicated you were aware that EC was a mechanically weak choice. Everything in your post indicated you were under the false impression that it was unusually strong on Stalkers when, in reality, it's even weaker on Stalkers than other AT. On Cobra Strike, a standard damage proc will occur 68.075% of the time. On Eagle's Claw, it will occur 84.758% of the time. If we were just firing this single attack, this would translate into +21.939 dpa for Eagle's Claw and +26.431 dpa for Cobra Strike because of the shorter activation time on CS. Put within the context of an entire rotation, Cobra Strike will still normally come out ahead because you're getting almost the same raw damage increase in 60% of the activation time. The ATO proc is indeed better on a higher damage power. However, the ATO proc only occurs once every 10 secs (normally once every two cycles of your damage) so if you're going to make this argument you really need to break down what rotation you're talking about. Simply saying "higher damage better!" isn't useful. In terms of the AF stack, remember that you're capped at 3 stacks. If you're trying to work in the ATO proc sequence then you're almost certainly using an attack sequence where you have three other MA attacks thrown in the same cycle. The target cap of Dragon's Tail is 10 enemies on a non-Tanker. 10 enemies can easily fit within a 8 yard radius. Indeed, I find this complaint particularly bizarre given that 8 yards is the norm for PBAoE - if your argument had any weight, we'd be mocking all those fools who think */Fiery Aura Brutes are useful for farming because there's no way they can ever hit enough targets with their AE.

What that chart shows is that Storm Kick, Crippling Axe and Assassin's Blow are all significantly higher dpa than Eagle's Claw. Cobra Strike and Crane Strike are both slightly better dpa. The only reason you'd ever use Eagle's Claw is off the ATO proc - and if you're looking for an infrequent attack to use when the ATO procs, you're better off with Moonbeam/Zapp.

Eagle's Claw has terrible dpa on a Stalker as well. Even with the ATO proc, you're still better off just running conventional attacks. Due to Force Feedback, Dragon's Tail is one of the highest dps AE attacks in any of the melee sets. Losing it is a huge drawback, especially given that the set has no other multi-target attacks.

This really boils down to the question of: for what? If you're talking about group content - more than one player - the Defender will normally be almost strictly better than the Corruptor. While you might get a minor boost in personal damage, this will almost inevitably be dwarfed by the boost in group damage the Defender variant would provide. Moreover, you might not even be getting that boost in personal damage even solo. Not only are your support set powers more potent, but the ease of hitting defensive benchmarks means you can often use procs more extensively on our Defender as opposed to our Corruptor. Couple that with the +30% damage Defenders receive while solo and there are relatively few builds that are worthwhile to play as a Corruptor. The other sliding scale is difficulty. What's useful in +0 content is not necessarily the same as four-star content. In +0 content, you see a lot of emphasis on sets like Kinetics because most players can easily make themselves nigh-invulnerable to anything they're likely to face. As you move towards four-star content, you see far more emphasis on defensively-focused sets to deal with the reality that even dedicated Tankers can struggle. You also have to consider whether you're planning to play with fully developed characters or not. If your expectation is that you'll be running a level 25 TF with level 25 characters using IOs, your support needs will be very different than if your expectation is to be running it with level 50 fully slotted characters who are merely downgraded to level 25. So when we talk about 'best builds' in CoH, we have to recognize that the standard way we talk about such things doesn't necessarily apply to CoH. There is no 'endgame' in CoH that we can all agree on like in most games. So while I can say that Defenders are almost always better than Corruptors in 'endgame', that's not nearly as useful as it would be in another game.

Eagle's Claw gives a +damage effect for Tankers/Brutes rather than +critical. However, Eagle's Claw is a terrible attack in any version that you probably shouldn't take in the first place.

Note that for Martial Arts, Brutes/Tankers receive +defense from Storm Kick while Scrappers/Stalkers do not. As a result, Martial Arts is a bit of an unusual choice for Scrappers.

For equivalent attacks, you need about +170% damage on an attack for a Scrapper to be equivalent to a Brute. You'll normally get about +125% of that from internal slotting and Alpha. For sets like Shield and Bio, Scrappers are almost strictly harder-hitting than Brutes even without any external buffing. With external buffing, Scrappers start to easily pull ahead. In practice, proper use of the Scrapper ATO proc means that they'll almost always do more single target damage than Brutes even on armor sets that don't provide any +damage. With that in mind, Scrappers will under-perform on sets with non-crittable attacks (damage auras, ongoing 'burn' or 'poison' effects) and sets where the critical is replaced by some other feature. Brute feel really strong in the early game because you just don't have much +damage. +170% damage isn't much for an Incarnated 50. With the kinds of enhancements/buffs you'd expect at level 10, it's. impossibly far away.

I'd make an argument for Dual Pistols. With Piercing Rounds, you've got -resist debuffing of -21.85% for a single target (vs. -33% for Sonic). With Achilles' Heel and low AF Annihilation procs, your effect -resist debuffing is equivalent to the lower damage dedicated -resist set. You've also got an ultimate that adds +10% defense to make Fulcrum Shift a bit safer. The +damage on Kinetics compensates for the lack of Aim. The enormous array of slotting options for Pistols also works well with the lack of need to push damage slotting to the limit. With Siphon Speed, Force Feedback and a fast recharge ultimate, there's no need to waste a pool pick on Hasten.

The damage from Freezing Rain is trivial, so it shouldn't matter for your decision. The damage for Tornado and Lightning Storm is the same for Corruptors and Defenders while the -resist from Freezing Rain is better for Defenders than Corruptors. So in terms of just the damage from Storm Summoning itself, Defenders deal more damage than Corruptors. In terms of the Blast set, Corruptors will do more damage. For Storm Summoning Defenders/Corruptors, the single target damage of Tornado/Lightning Storm is so significant in a pure ST fight that this damage difference doesn't matter much. So really the major damage advantage for Corruptors would be with AE. Whether or not you can meaningfully realize this damage difference depends on how well you leverage (or not) the superior defensive numbers of the Defender - it's far easier to hit defensive breakpoints on a Defender.