aethereal

I believe that Brimstone works differently from Reach for the Limit. This is the Brimstone Proc: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=redirects.stone_armor.brimstone_proc_tanker&at=tanker As far as I can tell -- and I definitely may be reading this wrong -- it always adds the fire damage, but the amount of damage varies based on a PPM-like formula (so less for powers that are fast to activate and/or high area).

Reach for the Limit is amusingly complicated. The basic power does nothing (that's why in-game power explanation doesn't show you the values). This is the power that procs the power that you listed: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=blaster_support.martial_manipulation.build_up_proc&at=blaster It's PPM is 0.67, and it applies to all attacks I believe.

I really enjoyed fighting Malta with Electric Armor and just being unconcerned with Sappers.

Well, perhaps I can offer some relevant experience, because, while I haven't played a ton of either SR or Willpower, I did play, back-to-back mostly-solo-to-50-and-beyond, seeking out some challenging content, the following characters: A spines/bio brute An ice/bio stalker A bio/claws tanker An energy/bio scrapper And Bio, as it happens, shares both the Willpower weakness to DDR and lacks protection to exotic mez types such as, yes, Confuse and Terrorize. I did get Terrorized and Confused on occasion. But I got defense debuffed a lot more (because defense debuffs are a feature of a huge number of mobs), and while being Terrorized and Confused was kind of annoying, getting defense debuffed was a lot more likely to actually faceplant me. I particularly found Praetorian Clockworks a big pain in the butt, because not only would they debuff my defense, they'd also floor my regeneration, so I'd just faceplant to them with every spawn unless I was very on top of my game -- and because I liked the Praetorian Invasion storyline and wanted to play it and solo the Praetorian AVs, I played against Praetorian Clocks a lot. In contrast, when I did that storyline with a /Ninjutsu scrapper a little later, Praetorian Clocks were no big deal. But beyond Praetorian Clocks, I also found that, for example, Battle Maiden was very tough for me to deal with as a /Bio character, because, yes, her defense debuffs. I had to eat a lot of purples to keep my defense high. When I was fighting Scirocco, I was unable to defeat him because his summoned whirlwind debuffed me until I realized it was ground only and fought him in the air. Same problem with Positron, and in general with Radiation Blast enemies. Don't get me wrong. Having no DDR was not, for a Bio character, a crippling weakness. I roflstomped the vast majority of content. But if someone had come down from heaven and said, "You can either have a bunch of DDR or Confuse and Terrorize protection," I definitely would've chosen DDR.

So, like: Super Reflexes has Confused protection. Slightly weirdly, it's in the first toggle, Focused Fighting, not where we generally think of SR's status protection being, the click Practiced Brawler. The result is that say the Succubus Come Hither confused that I assume is what @Lazarillo is suggesting makes Circle of Thorns an unattractive enemy group for SR does nothing to a SR character. I have to ask here, @Lazarillo, are these ideas you have based on play experience? I don't have a ton of SR play experience, but it's generally a highly performing set, and, I mean, it's true that every set has its weaknesses, but when you put a big laundry list of enemies and suggest that SR is bad against all of them, I just question that holistically.

Sorry, I wasn't clear: what is a thing you feel that you can't actually do in game better with WP than SR or shield? Like, is there an enemy group that you feel better about with WP? A TF? An arc?

What do you feel it is that WP can do that shield and SR can't?

Adding to the chorus, Brute Parry stacks fine. Tanker Parry does not stack.

Mez protection doesn't work in PvP. The way that mezzes work in PvP is REALLY different from how it works in PvE. Everyone -- even armored classes that are pretty much immune to mezzes in PvE -- will get mezzed in PvP, but only for very short amounts of time (for Dom/Troller holds I think it's 4 seconds base?), and then they have a cooldown period in which they're immune to mezzing.

Are you sure you aren't assuming 100% uptime for the force feedback proc here? If you have the power it's slotted in "turned on" in MIDS, it will show you +100% recharge, but in fact FF proc is almost always low uptime. Lots of people drastically overrate their recharge because of this.

You're correct that Brutes fury boosts the DoT of savage and Scrapper criticals don't. That probably still doesn't quite get Brutes to damage parity with a decent Scrapper build, but on Savage it's closer than anywhere else. The build up replacement for Savage is also better for Brutes.

I second Savage: fury buffing the bleed damage closes some of the damage deficit that Brutes have compared to Scrappers, and helps them pull away further from tanks.

I endorse @Maelwys's answer. In addition, Willpower has an endurance tool, which isn't really necessary on a high-sophistication build but definitely smooths the leveling process especially if you don't like slotting set IOs as you level, or want to do that only a little.

Bio armor has no debuff resistance of any kind. I don't generally find it a huge problem on S/L defense debuffers (Bio provides S/L resistance, so if you build towards that it will help a lot to survive Cims and other defense debuffers who use S/L attacks). But Praetorian Clockwork just wreck Bio by debuffing regeneration and defense and then having energy attacks (which Bio provides no native resistance to). One of the reasons why I don't usually slot DNA Siphon as a proc bomb is that if you have it slotted defensively and you use it at the right time it can really help you survive defense-debuffing mobs. Sure, against a lot of enemies that's redundant, but if you want to handle enemies that are debuff-heavy, it's really nice to have a big regeneration spike in the middle of the fight. Unless your enemies also debuff regen. Hi Shadows and Praetorian Clocks.

Invulnerability certainly has a higher durability ceiling than Willpower, especially on a Scrapper. You might find Willpower more user-friendly or easier on a low-sophistication build.

Invulnerable is a solid set on every AT. It also has a taunt aura on scrappers, which a lot of people really like. It rewards pretty careful IO slotting, in order to maximize its hybrid defense layering -- you ideally want to both get a bunch of defense and a bunch of resistance from your slotting. It doesn't have an endurance tool or an offensive buff (damage aura, +damage, etc), which probably keeps people from rating it absolutely first rate. I think that in an environment where it's pretty easy to hit most durability goals, people tend to gravitate towards armors that either provide a very easy play experience (sets with taunts/heals/endurance), or else sets that give them a boost on their offensive goals. Edit to add: Invul does have a sort of offensive buff in terms of +to-hit. This again might be something that very careful slotting can take advantage of (reduce accuracy slotting to put in more procs, for example), but probably most people aren't fine-tuning at this level and mostly waste the +to-hit.

Yup.

Several Scrapper armors have taunt auras. They are: Bio Invul Energy Aura Willpower Rad Shield So those armors will have many less runners.

You're not wrong about WP. It's... fine, perfectly playable, but it's lackluster. I don't think DA is a good set on Scrappers -- it's a somewhat clunky old-design Resistance set. As a resist set, it has a natural advantage on Brutes/Tanks with their higher resist cap, and its really notable thing is a huge heal which also shines on the higher hps of brutes/tanks. I'm sure that you can make a credible DA Scrapper, but it just feels like you'd get more bang for your buck from another AT. Spines is spines. Weak ST, a damage aura, decent AoE attacks slightly hobbled by the annoyingly long animation time on Spine Burst. EA is an all-round good performer. It has a taunt aura on Scrappers, it's a defense set, it has a heal and an endurance tool, the only thing it doesn't really have is a big offense component. I think everyone basically thinks EA is good, though you won't post top-end pylon times.

Regen underperforms. Shield is good. I don't think that either Savage or Battle Axe really demands a particular pairing. Savage has no defensive component so it may be better with a solidly defensively performant armor (which Regen is not), but, I mean, you can broadly just go with concept here, especially if you aren't interested in just wringing every possible ounce of performance out of the game.

Incarnate softcap is 59%, not 54%.

That's not a taunt aura.

I don't know what you think the plural auras are, but Shield/DM on tanks offers only one taunt aura (not that there's really any point in multiple taunt auras on a tanker, it'll just overkill taunt stuff). Shield does offer taunt on a Scrapper, unlike a lot of scrapper armors. Certainly the scrapper has less taunt than a tanker, but I'd generally consider the taunt aura on shield to be somewhat an advantage to the Scrapper -- all tankers get taunt auras, not all scrappers do. If you're looking for a differential on "what AT is shield better on," it's notable that it's one of the scrapper taunt aura sets.

You absolutely shouldn't need physical perfection on a /Bio character. The big thing to understand about Bio is the timing of DNA Siphon. DNA Siphon gives healing and Endurance for every live enemy it hits, but it instead gives regeneration and recovery for every dead enemy it hits. The regen/recovery are more valuable albeit less immediate, and in most cases you want to get a good mix of alive and dead opponents. Use Parasitic Aura or Ablative Carapace as you hit the spawn, burst out your AoEs and kill most of the minions. Then use DNA Siphon midway through the fight and you'll see your recovery skyrocket and be in great endurance shape to finish the Lts/Bosses and lather/rinse/repeat with the next spawn.

Regen. I think Fire is Real Bad for scrappers.