Hjarki

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.

The only reason for a Time/Water Defender to be in melee range would be Time's Juncture or potentially something from Epic/Patron Pools - and given that you're almost certainly either Power or Soul, probably not the latter. Time's Juncture gets less and less useful the more you ramp up difficulty. Not only do its debuffs get purple patch'd, but in four star content you've also got to deal with enemies having inherent +damage and +resist. So that impressive-seeming -25% ends up reducing damage more like 6% even against otherwise undistinguished enemies. Flight is also arguably the best movement power. It allows you to go anywhere and gives you two different Defense toggles in the same power pool pick.

This sample size is far too small to yield useful conclusions (around 25% margin of error at 95% confidence). It's also impossible to check your math because you haven't clearly explained what you're testing - for example, we know that 60%+ recharge must exist in your data set but we don't know where that recharge is coming from.

Why wouldn't you skip Cleave? It's an incredibly small radius AE that rarely hits multiple targets and it's not much use as a single target attack even when you're manipulating the ATO proc. It can slot the Armageddon proc, but the AF means that it's not appreciably better than just adding a standard proc to a single target attack. Likewise, you're not getting any additional set versatility since you've already got two melee AE.

Or you could put it in one of the other 4 defense powers you have that never get turned off.

Hide is a poor choice for Kismet. Kismet requires the power be active for it to work and there are times (such as escorts) where you need to turn off Hide. Given the plethora of other options, it doesn't make much sense to put it in Hide. I'd argue that Savage is far better on a Stalker than any other AT - and one of the best sets available to Stalkers. The ST is extremely simple - a very fast rotation that only needs Maiming, Savage and Assassin's. You constantly maintain 5 stacks, so you have an EndRed/Recharge advantage over other sets. For AE, you really only need Savage Leap. Unlike other AT, Savage Melee for Stalkers has a full power version of Build Up. Coupled with the increased ability to critical from Hide, this gives you a large radius alpha strike every 40 sec (before recharge).

In terms of Dual Pistols, let's start with the big issue: no Aim. This significantly impacts the value of Hail of Bullets since you can't Aim + Gaussian's proc into a mass damage attack. Instead, you get Swap Ammo. However, I'd argue you shouldn't waste a power on it (for a Defender). Cold Ammo gives a very minor recharge/slow debuff. Toxic gives a -damage debuff that - like all such debuffs - gets savaged by purple patch and resists. Fire gives a bit of additional damage. However, what Lethal gives trumps all of those: -20% stacking damage resistance. Given a Pistols/Executioner's/Pistols/Piercing rotation, this averages to around -30% resist. For Beam Rifle, the big objection I have is Disintegrate. It's a critical part of the set but it just feels so clunky.

Probably my go-to for a tanking Tanker is Radiation/Staff/Energy. Radiation is one of the best armor sets from a pure Tanking standpoint. It's a resist/regen-based set so you don't end up in a situation where the difficulty ramps up and the opponents blow right through your once-soft-capped-defenses. The weak resists for Radiation (every set has them) are a near-perfect Cold/Dark/Psi - all damage types that aren't very hard-hitting but primarily worrisome for their debuffs. Radiation has slow resist against Cold/Psi (and can be capped with IO sets) and you can use Focused Accuracy from Energy to cover hit debuffing. Radiation also has endurance recovery so you never run into that mid-level problem of constantly gasping for endurance. Radiation also has an auto-hit taunt aura, which can come in handy. Staff is probably the most defensively-focused melee set around. It can provide enormous amounts of M/L Defense (and from early on, making it easier to level than many sets) as well as Resists (or other options) from the ultimate attack. While its single target damage isn't anything special, Radiations -regen means that's far less significant solo (and, of course, no one really cares about the minor differences in Tanker dps in a group setting). Staff's AE is strong, especially with 10-target Cones. I run Flight as one my pools, so I can hover above enemies (sometimes out of range of their melee range with Staff's extra two yards of range) and sweep entire spawns with those Cones. While leveling, you'll be stuck with just Precise Strike and Guarded Spin for about half your journey, but you can do a lot with just those two attacks. Energy is really for the early mentioned Focused Accuracy to cover -perception/-hit debuffs. It also provides another healing mule (I use it for Regenerative Tissue) to save you a slot you'd otherwise waste elsewhere.

This would require you take Subdue. It's not appreciably different damage-wise vs. abilities like Dominate, Char or Chilblain that you have to take anyway - and all of those attacks from primary can slot the ATO. An ability like Thunder Kick that's actually part of an optimized ST rotation and recharges/activates quickly enough to triple stack is the ideal.

Classically, Ice and Mace were strong choices for the defense toggles. After 27/4, S/L/E and S/L/E/R are much less comprehensive defenses for melee-based builds (which virtually all capable Dominators are). Sleet is a nice enough power, but the increasing emphasis on +4 play can diminish its importance. As a result, I argue that for most Dominator builds, your best bet is probably going to be Psi Mastery. It provides you status protection before you get Domination online, two LotG mules, broad-based hit/defense buffs (for the entire team no less) and a Coercive Persuasion mule if you need it. Psionic Tornado is also a solid ranged AE. Primal Forces is a (distant) second. Dominator Assault sets are, for the mot part, clunky. They have excessively long recharges and it's difficult to build functional ST rotations. Energy Transfer can solve the ST rotation (unfortunately, it does nothing for the often more problematic issue of how to slot the ATO proc without crippling your dps).