Scarlet Shocker

3-7 what time zone? I could be interested if I could fit it in not certain I feel entirely comfortable with the whole tank thing but... I might get silly with it and swap Taunt for Invisibility

Enervating Field specifically says it "irradiates foes with a deadly dose of radiation," in its description. That is pretty compelling. I can only think that my earlier solution is the closest I can think of. Clearly the tech is there and we can also assume that only those directly affected are impacted. There is no lingering after effect so at some point they are "cleansed." The technology exists, so I'm thinking that Paragon won't allow people to just die of cancer and the villain groups won't allow their minions to be wasted when they can be sent out to strive again.

Granted. I get that but that refers back to my original response here. You truly don't need to delve too far under the hood. It's good that you wish to, and there's no harm in it but don't get caught up in "The NUMBERS"™ - you will benefit far more from getting a sense of what each AT does, on teams and solo, then define which match your skills best and then are there any procs that you wish you had. It's hard to argue that you won't benefit from a Numina's proc or any of the others but again, they aren't required but a good SO/Basic IO build will get you a long long way and by the time you've got that far you'll hopefully be good with that character. Procs are nice to have and might enhance your game play but that's as necessary as they are or ever should be.

In a white room situation, your curtains need to be black. The question isn't simply answered in binary. You didn't get the answer you sought because the true answer is "it depends"

Good point! I'm a big fan of poison. Back in the day a Thugs/Poison MM was considered the best AV killer on live but for some reason I've yet to fathom, Poison has fallen somewhat out of favour. Perhaps it's because it's mostly ST damage and is best used up close and personal which for many more squishy toons can be daunting. I've not considered it in a sapper context but as a debuffer it excels. I've got a couple of /poison characters that work very well despite not being completely slotted out. That said I doubt Poison trap has the utility of the electric secondaries that can do much better at sapping.

A lot of your questions will be resolved by learning the game, what your playstyle is, what ATs and power sets you prefer and where you want to Min/Max or simply enjoy the game for casual fun. As Statesman used to say back in the day; "Let experience guide you" which I thought was a pretty good strap line for a game based on XP gain. I find I usually have some staples across the board, Numinas (but almost always paired with a Heal to get the regen benefit for the cost of one slot) and Performance Shifter, maybe a couple of LotGs and the +3% procs if possible. But remember; nothing is essential. The game lore tells you that this game is built around SOs - which is almost true but I wouldn't want to try Incarnate level content with just SOs -- I think you need more for that. What is more important is to know your toon, it's strengths, weaknesses and how it actually works when you're at the keyboard. You have 1000 slots per shard. If you are struggling, go make something else and see how it compares then revisit. There is no wrong answer here but if you're not having fun, then you might want to think hard about why before you spend inf and merits on slots because in my experience that's not gonna fix a toon you hate.

the quest for balance always makes me inwardly groan. That quest, in itself can lead to bigger problems and ruin the game experience. It leads to homogeneity and reduces the features that make a particular AT feel unique and different to others. It satisfies one need only - the selfish need to make a toon that isn't necessarily powerful but interesting to play to be as powerful as a different one. Often that is based on perception only, which exacerbates the issue. I'd also argue it is a wider symptom of mistrust of the devs "they don't know what they're doing making X so UP/Y so OP" when clearly the devs know better than anyone the issues the game faces. The best advice I can give is don't worry about performance so much enjoyment you get from playing the game and characters you make

GReat info thank you!

can be hard to digest sometimes though I love quicksand. One of my fave toons on live was my earth/thermal controller. Great buffs, some really solid controls, a great, robust pet and some good debuffs

Yes that's the one by the SG Registrar. But the Plaque says nothing and there's an opportunity for some great game lore there

@Healix finally gets an enemy to safeword

I ended up choosing Fire because I don't have the PPPs unlocked and frankly on Indom that'll be a challenge. I'm also a big fan of Melt Armor so it's a bit of a gimme

I have a Razer Naga and Tarterus so I just bind the powers to keys there and zoom

I've never tried that. I'm not great with /commands with SoS I just point, click and I'm in their face giving them what for

I would tend to agree with this, the caveat being I've very limited experience of CT. I might have to go on the Test Server and give it a whirl. That said I don't really bother with travel powers now. SoS gives me a great run speed - plus the insta-TP and then I just buy rocket packs. I'll invariably take Combat Jumping. I used to be a big fan of Hover, but that's been seriously gimped now and even at 0ft you have to deactivate it to operate some powers which I find annoying and immersion breaking.