Constantine

It's definitely noticeable. Widows have lower base HP. An equally slotted scrapper will have roughly 300 hp more at level 50, and while that might not sound like much, it certainly makes a big difference when you also consider the scaling damage resistance. Also, widows have virtually no defense debuff resistance. On the bright side, widows provide excellent team buffs and their base costume comes with a buttcape, which is always a plus in my book.

Out of those 4 sets, Bio is probably the best of the bunch, since it provides great survivability combined with excellent offensive capabilities. The biggest weakness of Psi Melee is, oddly enough, its damage type. While not many enemies have resistance to it, those that do have a lot of it. Bio helps you with that with its mix of +damage buff, added toxic damage and a -res aura. The problem with it however is that it can be pretty hard to fit into your concept, since even with minimal FX option the set still looks very bio-organic in nature with tentacles sprouting out of your body. EA I have almost no experience with, as I only tried the set when it was first added and boy did it suck back then. Of course a lot has changed since then. IOs were introduced and the set itself received numerous buffs. These days EA looks really strong, at least on paper, but unfortunately it doesn't provide and offensive capabilities. Both FA and Elec are ok and will get the job done, but I feel like their potential is wasted on a scrapper. Not that they are bad sets per se, but they are definitely worse on scrappers than on brutes. Out of those 2 I'd pick Fire, since it provides way more damage with Burn/Blazing Aura/Fiery Embrace. Another option you might want to consider is Shield, since it has great survivability and offers a great offensive boost with AAO and Shield Charge. It has plenty of customization options that can work with you concept. For example you can use the energy shield as a psychic barrier that you can manifest through your suit.

You're probably missing the "Oh, Wretched Man!" arc from Seer Marino. Should be in 15-19 range.

Here's the build I'm currently using. It has softcapped S/L/F/C, nearly hardcapped S/L res and 161.3 global recharge. Endurance is still a bit of an issue, but I don't have all the accoaldes/incarnates yet, so I'm not sure if I can get away with core Musculature over radial. I'd also really like to fit in a Kismet unique, but not really sure what to cut for it. Either way, I hope this build can give you some ideas on how to improve yours. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Asgard: Level 50 Magic Scrapper Primary Power Set: Titan Weapons Secondary Power Set: Willpower Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Crushing Blow -- SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(9), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(11), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(11), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13) Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(3), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(7), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(9) Level 2: Titan Sweep -- SprScrStr-Dmg/Rchg(A), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg(15), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), SprScrStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), SprScrStr-Rchg/+Crit(19) Level 4: Mind Over Body -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(5), UnbGrd-Max HP%(5), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(7), GldArm-3defTpProc(21), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(50) Level 6: Follow Through -- SprCrtStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), SprCrtStr-Dmg/Rchg(25), SprCrtStr-Rchg/+50% Crit(25), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg(39) Level 8: Super Jump -- WntGif-ResSlow(A) Level 10: Indomitable Will -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23) Level 14: Fast Healing -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A) Level 16: Rise to the Challenge -- Prv-Absorb%(A), Prv-Heal(42), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(42), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(43), Prv-Heal/Rchg(43), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(43) Level 18: Rend Armor -- AchHee-ResDeb%(A), Hct-Dam%(39), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(39), Hct-Dmg/Rchg(40), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Hct-Acc/Rchg(40) Level 20: Quick Recovery -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(45) Level 22: Boxing -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(46), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(48) Level 24: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(27), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(36), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(37) Level 26: Build Momentum -- RctRtc-Pcptn(A), RctRtc-ToHit/Rchg(27), GssSynFr--Build%(50) Level 28: Whirling Smash -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(29), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(29), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(31), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34) Level 30: Heightened Senses -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(31), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(37), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(42), RedFrt-EndRdx(45), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(48) Level 32: Arc of Destruction -- Arm-Dam%(A), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(33), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Arm-Acc/Rchg(34), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(34) Level 35: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-Def(36), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(36), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(46) Level 38: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 41: Physical Perfection -- PrfShf-End%(A) Level 44: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(45), Rct-ResDam%(50) Level 47: Tactics -- RctRtc-ToHit(A), RctRtc-ToHit/Rchg(48) Level 49: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Critical Hit 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), Clr-RunSpd(21) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), Pnc-Heal/+End(19) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(3) Level 1: Momentum Level 50: Ageless Core Epiphany Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon ------------

All enhancement always provide their primary benefits even when exemplared down, although if you go below level 32 they start to scale down. Let's say you have a level 50 Damage SO slotted in one of you powers. At levels 32-50 you will get the full 33.3% boost from it. At level 20 the boost will be roughly half its normal value, so around 16.6%. And at level 5 your enhancement will provide merely 10% of its initial value. Now those are not the exact numbers, as the scaling is not linear, but if I recall correctly, on average you lose around 3.5% of enhancement's effectiveness per level below 32.

This is a pretty accurate rundown. The only mistake I'd like to point out is that you always get the set bonuses from Purples/ATOs/PvP IOs even if the power they are slotted in is greyed out. Also, let me further elaborate on the special IOs from sets. Those IOs can be put into 2 categories: Procs and Globals. As DSorrow already mentioned, Procs are treated as enhancements and will always work as long as you have the access to the power. The level of the IO doesn't matter in this case as you will still get the the full effect from it even when exemplared below the IO's level. Globals, however, are treated as set bonuses, which means they follow the same -3 level exmplar rule. Also, you can't stack more than 5 instances of a single Global IO bonus. There are however 2 Global IOs that exempt from the exemplar rule: Gladiator's Armor +Def and Sheield Wall +Res. Those are treated as Purples and thus always provide the bonuses. You can check which special IOs fell into which category here: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Set_Enhancements_with_Special_Effects

I have to admit, the build does look very impressive, although in my opinion there's still plenty of room for improvement. After fiddling with it in mids, I came up with 2 alternative iterations, which I think should improve your overall performance. Let's start with the simple one. You don't really need the extra set of Kinetic Combat in Brawl as you are already at 45% S/L even without it, and put those slots in BS, SB and Impale for the extra 15% F/C def. I guess you wanted to overshoot a bit t to be 1 small purple away from incarnate softcap, but in reality that's hardly going to matter, as you'll pretty much always have at least a couple people with Maneuvers on your team. Also, I'm not sure if it is intended, but you're using 3 pieces of Reactive Armor and 1 piece of Unbreakable Guard in Meltdown. Swapping to 4 pieces of RA will give you an extra 1.25 S/L def bonus, that will put you at pretty much the S/L softcap even without Melee Hybrid. And that leads me to my next point - switch Melee for Assault Radial. Your build already has pretty insane survivability, so you should focus on brute's primary task, which is dealing damage. I'd also swap Diamagnetic Interface for Degenerative Core, as the debuffs are hardly going to matter vs normal enemies, and the AVs resist them anyway, so you're going to get way more milage out -HP. Finally, you can safely drop one slot from health and put it elsewhere, for example an extra Preventive Medicine in Radiation Therapy or a -Res proc in Meltdown. Rad armor already has extremely good endurance/health management tools, so you can easily get away with only a single Panacea proc in Health. Anyway, here's the build with proposed changes: Click this DataLink to open the build! Ok, now for the second one. This build uses Barrier instead of Ageless, which gives it higher defensive stats with softcapped S/L/N/E/F/C/Melee defense (well, 0.9% off on F/C, but close enough) and 5-10% higher resists across the board. Of course this comes at a cost of, well, losing Ageless. And while endurance part of it is pretty irrelevant on a /Rad, losing the extra recharge can be pretty significant, given your rather low global recharge. I've managed to squeeze in an extra 8.75% bonus from the full set of Preventive Medicine, but I'm not sure if it's going to be enough. Either way, you should try it yourself and see how it fares. Click this DataLink to open the build!

Well, since it is my build (or a slight variation of it, rather), guess I should chime in. After playing with this build for 400+ hours, I can assure you that it works really well. I've managed to solo multiple GMs even with the earlier version. Naturally, I've made some adjustments over time to further improve it, so here's the latest iteration: Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Alternatively, you could try this build by Kaeldian. He takes a different approach, by taking Musculature and relying on Barrier to hit the softcap.

For the 20-24 you can do the Smoke and Mirrors from Twilight's Son. There are 4 missions, all of them are in Ouro: defeat boss; defeat boss; defeat boss, rescue 7 NPCs; defeat boss; rescue 2 NPCs. Takes around 7-10 minutes to complete, depending on your challenges.

There is an even quicker way to get there. Just open the LFG tab, pick ITF, select "Lock the event for your group" and hit queue. The LFG tab lets you to travel to any zone that has a TF/Trial contact in one loading.

Well, it's somewhat hard to say which sets should go where without seeing your whole build, but I'll try to give you a few pointers. First of all, the optimal attack chain for Fiery Melee is Cremate - Incinerate - GFS. To achieve gapless you need 240% recharge on GFS, which is probably pretty hard to get with only 43% Rech form ToD, so you're better off swapping it for Hecatomb, putting Mako's in Incinerate and ToD in Scorch. If you can't get to 240%, then you should use Cremate - Incinerate - GFS - FS chain. Critical Strikes in Cremate is fine, as the proc boosts the critical hit chance of all attacks that you cast for the next 3 seconds, so you generally want it to fire off before your heavy hitters. Also, you should swap the -Res proc in FSC for Armageddon proc, or, better yet, 5 pieces of Armageddon + an extra damage proc. The -Res procs in AoE attack are generally useless IMO, as you might not even hit the debuffed target again, so having the extra damage from procs frontloaded is usually better. In general, you only want the -Res in attacks that you use in your single target chains to soften up tough targets like GMs or AVs, but your milage may vary of course. Here's the planned build I have for my Fire/Shield. It's still a work in progress, as he's stuck in mid 30s, so I might need to do some adjustments once I hit 50. Still, it might give you a couple ideas on how to optimize you build. Click this DataLink to open the build!

Unfortunately, the answer is no. Slotting damage resistance enhancements only increase the Psionic and Defense debuff resistance component of Foresight and doesn't affect scaling resistances in any way. So you're much better off slotting it for defense instead.

Finally got around to doing some pylon runs yesterday with my live WM/Bio build that I've posted here before. T4 Agility Core T4 Degenerative Core T3 Ageless Partial Core T4 Assault Core Rotation was Shatter - Clobber - Jawbreaker. Like Kael, started every run with Hasten + Ageless, begin timer as soon as I hit Build Up. Times without Hybrid clicky: 2:50 ~ 353 DPS 2:52 ~ 351 DPS 2:35 ~ 375 DPS 2:47 ~ 357 DPS 2:28 ~ 387 DPS Times with Hybrid clicky used: 2:09 ~ 425 DPS 2:14 ~ 414 DPS 2:04 ~ 437 DPS 1:42 ~ 504 DPS 1:53 ~ 467 DPS Overall, the numbers seem to be in line with what I expected, given my somewhat suboptimal slotting on ST attacks. Nevertheless, I'm fairly pleased with these results. For what it's worth I was able to solo Eochai with this build (hyrbid used, no lore/insps) which I consider to be a rather impressive feat. Also, I've started working on a second build, designed for soloing AVs/GMs. It's not fully optimized yet, but it's my starting point. Would be nice if anyone could take it for a spin on Justin as I probably won't be able to do it until the end of next week. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build!

You should check out this excellent guide by @Shinobu. You'll be able to afford this kind of build within a few days.

Well, it should be a pretty straightforward port. The only meaningful change would be the slotting of Shatter. I use Critical Strikes there as Shatter is the only attack I use in both my ST and AoE chains, but as a brute you should go for the more optimal 5 pieces of Armageddon + -Res proc. Obviously with this change you won't be softcapped to F/C anymore, but to be honest it shouldn't affect your performance in any meaningful way. But if you really want those couple % back, you could slot a set of Avalanche in any of you AoE attacks. Obviously the build doesn't have taunt and I'm not really sure what to drop for it, as the build is already pretty tight. For what it's worth, on my scrapper I was able to solo Scrapyard, Kraken and Eochai so far with this build (without lore/insps, naturally), as well as Archon Burkholder at level 30. I'm not sure if it's gonna be possible to do this as a brute, as the buff you get from offensive adaptation is not as significant, and brute's ATOs don't help much with damage output, but maybe the superior slotting on Shatter will compensate for it. Anyway, there you go: Brute_-_War_Mace_-_Bio_Armor.mxd

Nice to some familiar names here! My global was @Scorpio (well, still is in fact). I had quite a lot of alts, most of whom probably had Scorpio as a part of their names, but my mains were Piano Black and IDDQD. I'm currently playing on Torch with Genome as my main, so feel free to say hi if you run into me 🙂

Well, I'm not Kael either, but here's another take on WM/Bio to compare. I went for more survivability and got softcapped S/L and F/C, as well as nearly hardcapped S/L res with offensive adaptation (combat attributes in game show 73.56% with 1 enemy in melee range). Hasten is also perma. Naturally this comes at a cost of lower DPS as I had to go for Core Agility. Haven't done any Pylon runs yet as I want to get the the Core Assault T4 first instead of my current Radial, but I'm certain that my numbers are going to be significantly lower than Kael's. This one does look significantly tankier which I like, but it does run into the same thing I noticed on Doyler's, there's no -res proc in Shatter, which I something I definitely want. I didn't play with the setup like I did the other, but it'll likely have to be modified a fair bit to fit it in. I did like your idea to put a 2 set of Rectified Reticle in both tactics & BU, seems like it could potentially be very useful. Thanks for the ideas! Well, it's actually pretty easy to modify. Naturally, it comes at the expanse of survivability, but the difference probably won't be too noticeable. For what it's worth, I've designed my character as a generalist, so I purposely put Critical Strikes in Shatter, as it's the only attack I use it in both ST and AoE chains. Anyway, there you go: | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1542;720;1440;HEX;| |78DA6594594F534114C7E7F6DE52294B298596AD0B05642F547D710B1101138458E| |5C127532F652C37296D73CB83FAE63750D4F8A07E0513FD181AF50BB82F891B60A2| |C6DD7A3AE74FD3E4CECB6FE63F739639E7CE5D3C3FD378E7D8A529A1351FCD99A55| |27A29639BC5A2B4DD8B66D6CA081A9EACCC17D664CC43F3D0CE767A51E6A44C9C36| |69666664BCAACFC873325F928969AB903E6167CDBC95491FB1D70AB6684C150AB9C| |482348B563EDBA416735676759D565EB55A2A4AB9E2DB39B522EDD2AA556C9D2D5A| |99C474CEBC282952695DDA173A2891894A32418151D6458A1037C4D849F014737C8| |9F9A48FA8A9B36EF15317226908E32B18A28DB021EABEF1BAEE3BD3BB87F9946C35| |B6D5B41B2EA5B9362AAC171D94830EBF7AC6507B8D125C66369BE00AB3FF2CF319F| |975B3ADEEDEE258BBB6C12FC8A15D53ECA2381EBEABDB739DED07AF31872F3347AE| |801BE055E6738A53CF71CA2172D2C07E44439986D0486982D2A4949774DE8758BE4| |DCEA3E503F891D9F11EFCC41C7CC7ECA13CFDB0F597B956AD82F75A7FF3BAED0FF8| |9719FCC77C457103A84700BDE9424FBA7EC03F7A13A7ACDBD193F651A17A1154F40| |89DF642F013829F08EC23F0D70B3F61CAB713F9764EB1D67F98F3193F04EEE75E4F| |1CE0F5C441A64171BA11A71B7DEA99439C795DD98C1DE7F56BBA5B98E3B8C23E5D7| |D6F493FD8CC8C502E51E41245ED62A8590C358BA166BDA8592F6AFB86FCC7D9D688| |3F66ADEF11781F7C80FB3D64BE259B01D80CC458DBDD0386C108FA1B65FAE9CE437| |C67D710EE3CDC06B63003746694FD6AA33729CF00D5EC16B393EE9840DF12D092B7| |9941B29BE43D31B9534FA3FAC62B9F2F7D9D51A3FA92CB238EDD49879274287B1DC| |A3E87B2E0505206C292A229A5BE4554AAAF32D9F456FF11D8DDAE55E6693268882D| |C7A9CFDE9A7F0BFE292EFC63EE56DE2DFCBFA899DFAB79CF6A9CF156CC59306BE6C| |B35F354CD5C8D5FD4892484FF4FFF1B27| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Well, I'm not Kael either, but here's another take on WM/Bio to compare. I went for more survivability and got softcapped S/L and F/C, as well as nearly hardcapped S/L res with offensive adaptation (combat attributes in game show 73.56% with 1 enemy in melee range). Hasten is also perma. Naturally this comes at a cost of lower DPS as I had to go for Core Agility. Haven't done any Pylon runs yet as I want to get the the Core Assault T4 first instead of my current Radial, but I'm certain that my numbers are going to be significantly lower than Kael's. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1542;710;1420;HEX;| |78DA6594594F534114C7E7F6DE52294B2905CAD68502162814AABE1B11314188551| |E7C32F552C67293D236B73CA86F7E03458D0FEA5730D18FE1FA05DC97C40D3051E3| |6E3D9DF3A7B9C99D97DFCC7FE62C7366593A37D77AFBE8C583426B3F5C34ABD5DC7| |2DE362B15697B97CC829517D47C05592AAFCBB88FFAE1DDE9DC922C4A993E6552CF| |CCCB44439F936765A92AD3B3563977DC2E98252B9F3B64AF976DD19A2D978BE9456| |956AC52A14D0DE6ADC2DA068DFC6AB45C917235B0BB6A55DAD535ABD279A462E5D3| |B345F382A448D50D699FEFA544A6EBC9F408B49A2EB2848421264F80279953CBCC2| |7C3444DADF58A9FBA101943185FC1304D440CD1F48DC74DDF99FE7DCCA764ABB1AD| |A65DF728CDB35967B3E8A51C74CEC1D0533CD73A018E33DB93E018F319F9F3B23FD| |DBBCD31F6EC805F10BB5B53EC27FF3EF6EFF55D339496BCCA1CBFC49CB80C6E8257| |98CF294E33C7A985C9490BFB112D356A4223A50D4A9B525ED2FA006205B6388F8E0| |FE04766EF7BF01333F98E39487906611BACF13E3B05CF75FEE671D71FF02FB3E71F| |F315C50DA11E219C493FCEA2FF07FCE34C12947537CEA23B25D80FA8D35C187EC2F| |013857D14FE86E02742F9F621DFBE3CD76B648539658292397D065C651A14670071| |06704E83F388B3A0AB7B31798CC7AF696F118EE389047475CF3241B09D19A55C62C| |82586DAC551B3386A1647CD8650B321D4F60DF94FC036F198B5E147E03DF03E73E4| |21F880F9966C47791FC6689CB5BD8360048CE29C63CC20ED7D8C6D3C63D8FB7817D| |8C10CD19A14E7A4A56E50BE21AADD4D661FED358DF34B43CBDC62F690DD0CCF8999| |DDBA1A8D375EBFC6744B6346E325D7265CB3332E25E352F6BB94032E65D1A5640D8| |42545534A7347E3EDD7B6FC8D3F02B33B4E65813A49436CBB567DF63BFE16FC291E| |FC3177EAEF17FE5F38FA771D7DD54EFB559A4A301DFD15473FEBE8ABF68B4E22833| |AFE0732A61B48| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

You've got plenty of slots you can easily cut. Gladiator's armor can be put into SoW. Weave doesn't really need to be 6 slotted. Also, you can get rid of some slots in Health, Fast Healing and especially Physical Perfection. The extra regen from those might sound like a good deal on paper, but in reality the boost is pretty negligible when you're sitting at around 1000% already with full RttC. I usually use them solely for +Recovery/Regen procs on my WP chars. Hasten doesn't need 3 slots as you can get it to ED capped recharge with 2 level 50 IOs and 7 or 8 enhancement boosters. For incarnates: Judgement - whichever you like the most. None of them are particularly good or bad. Well, maybe cone ones aren't that great. I just pick whatever fits thematically. Destiny - WP doesn't really need any of them to perform well. Personally I have all at t3 on my StJ/WP and WM/Bio and swap them around based on what my team currently needs. Interface - either is fine. I tend to pick degenerative more often simply because reactive is way more widespread and the debuff only stacks up to 5 times. Lore - both Cimerorans and Warworks got nerfed in i24 I believe, so I'm not sure how well they perform these days. I generally pick longbow for the -regen on Boss. Hybrid - You don't need any more survivability so Assault Core is the best.

You should probably move the Gladiator's Armor +3% to OwtS and use the extra slot for another proc in Smite. Also, if you're planning to exemplar a lot, moving critical strikes to an earlier power might be a good idea. SL would probably be the ideal place for it, but if you put Mako's in MG, you probably won't have enough recharge in it to run S-Sl-S-MG chain. Maybe put Mako's in Smite and Hecatomb in MG? With the PPM mechanic it shouldn't make too much of a difference once you have access to all 3, and having an early access to CRITICAL STRIKES would likely give you more DPS in the lower levels than having a Hecatomb proc over Mako's in Smite. Either way you should try it out yourself and see what works best. Speaking of attack chains, Hasten is way too high up. I'd swap it with grant cover. Lower level enemies don't have too many strong defense debuffs anyway, and even if you run into ones that do, you can usually negate it by popping a couple purple insps. There are however no isnps to boost your recharge. Finally, I think that Preventive Medicine will be slightly better than Numina's in True Grit as you don't need to rely on +regen bonuses as much when you have Siphon Life. But the difference is pretty marginal. Other than that, the build looks very good and really fun as well. My main scrapper on live was a DM/Shield as well and now I really want to play him again!

I have a Staff/Rad at 50 with a fairly decent build and he feels, well, average. Just average. The single target dps is ok, I've soloed a couple AVs on him in what felt reasonable times, but certainly slower than my WM. Haven't done any pylon runs with either of them, so can't tell the exact numbers. AoE output is ok as well with 2 fairly large cones and a wide PBAoE. Better than that of StJ or BS but falls behind Spines, TW, WM and some others. As far as secondaries for it goes, I'd say you want to avoid anything that has a lot of click powers. Staff doesn't have a no redraw option so click intensive sets aren't too great with it. I have 4 in Rad and it certainly can be frustrating at times. Also, it's worth noting that Staff has access to a +melee def power, which means you can hit M/R/A softcaps with certain secondaries. I've tried to do it with Rad but ended up falling short by about 3% in each. I probably could've softcapped him at the cost some recharge/dps (or with Barrier Destiny, now that I think about it), but even at 42% the cost of the build was much higher than I was willing to spend on that character, so I opted for capped S/L instead. But if you have at least one Def power in your secondary, getting to 45% should be pretty trivial.

Well, Agility is certainly great if you need squeeze out those last couple of percent of Defense to hit your softcaps as well as get more recharge/endmod to run the best attack chains. It's exactly what I opted for on my WM/Bio as I was really slot starved on it. But if your build can achieve it's goals without it, you should pick something else. Musculature is generally the best choice as it not only increases your own DPS, but also the DPS of your Judgement nuke and Lore pets, which can be really significant in the late game. Whirling Mace is your bread and butter AoE attack. It deals about 140 damage when fully enhanced to a maximum number of 10 targets around you. So if you're hitting all 10 enemies, you're looking at dealing at least 1400 damage per cast, more if you have any external damage buffs. The stun component on it is just an added bonus, which you should never care about too much. You're not playing melee DPS class for it's debuff/control potential, leave those tasks to the controllers on your team. Your goal is to kill as many things as fast as your can.

Well, the reason for Spiritual over Agility is pretty simple. You are already sitting at pretty much softcapped S/L/F/C, so the the defense boost it provides is useless. Also, you've said that endurance is never an issue, which means that the primary end mod boost of agility is also wasted, which leaves you with only the 33% recharge reduction bonus. Compared to spiritual's 45% recharge and 33% healing on top of it, the choice seems pretty obvious. As far as attacks goes, I have to admit that I didn't even notice that you don't have Whirling Mace in you build. Now, I don't want to sound like the guy who tells others how to play their characters, but I strongly suggest you to reconsider it as you're severely gimping your AoE damage output. Also, for what it's worth, the power has by far my most favourite sound effect in the whole set, which makes it really satisfying to use. As for not using Hasten initially to get the feel for the set, I personally think that it's a pretty bad move on your part, as you're just picking up habits of using bad attack chains. Hasten is an important tool in most good builds and purposely avoiding it is a big mistake. Once again, I'm not trying to tell you how to play your character, because at the end of the day, if you're having fun with it, it's all that really matters. I do, however, feel obliged to point out all of your decisions that I think are suboptimal.

Personally, I just find it too lackluster. It isn't worth to use on normal mobs for obvious reasons and it just doesn't do enough vs AVs. Well, while I certainly can can't with the fact that SD gives bigger damage boost, I feel that it's incorrect to compare it to Alpha slot ability. I mean, techincally if you would slot Musculature, you'd get even better damage numbers. But that would mean losing the extra recharge, ergo actually losing overall DPS. And that is exacty the point I was trying to make when I said "IF you can achieve your build goals without relying on Alpha". For my build, I aimed at softcapped s/l and ranged while squeezing out as much recharge as I could to have everything near perma. And I was able to achieve it without using Agility, thus making Musculature a superior option. Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not trying to bash your build or anything. I do in fact find it extremely impressive from the min/max standpoint and would love to try it out someday. But our builds are focusing on different playstyles. Yours is about getting in, hitting as many with sould drain and outputting as much damage as you can while relying on S/L def/res to mitigate the damage from enemies close to you. Mine leans more towards support, as I hover above the team and rely on ranged def as my primary source of mitigation and have the S/L def for occasional stray mobs that come into melee range.

First of all, it would be really handy if you could add a datalink or a datachunk next time you post a build, so people don't have to manually input it into mids. Anyway, after a brief look at it, I'd say it's a perfectly serviceable build. Not fully optimized, but decent enough to be able to get through anything the game has to offer. Here are some pointers on how to improve: The optimal attack chains for WM are Clobber - Jawbreaker - Shatter for ST and Shatter - Crowd Control - Whirling Mace for AoE. Now I don't remember the exact recharge numbers you need to achieve gapless, but I'm certain you can't achieve them without hasten. Shatter is the only attack that is used in both, thus it's a pretty good place for Critical Strikes. If you want to focus on ST dps howerer, it's better to put a 5 pieces of Armageddon and a Fury of the Gladiator -res proc. Also, Pulverize is pretty much useless outside of leveling/exemplaring and is somewhat overslotted. You can easily remove 2 slots from it and use it as your Kinetic Combat mule. Having both Focus Accuracy and Tactics is an overkill, you can easily drop one for Hasten. Also Resurgence and, to a lesser extent, SoW are pretty worthless, so you can get rid of them as well. You don't need KB protection enhancement in SJ. Winter's Gift slow resistance is way more useful. 6 pieces of LotG in Weave is not worth it. You're much better off with a LotG +7.5% and 5 pieces of Red Fortune if you want to 6 slot it. You can easily get to S/L softcap by using 2 pieces of Rectified Reticle in 2 of your +ToHit powers. If you're using both LotG and Shiled Wall in a single power, it's better to get 3 piece of Shield Wall as the bonuses are slightly better. Same goes for Reactive Defenses. The difference is pretty marginal, but still. A full set of Preventive medicine offers better bonuses than a set of Numina's in my opinion. Either way, you should have a PM Chance for Absorb in your build. For incarnate abilities Musculature is going to be your best choice for Alpha if you can get enough recharge to run the optimal attack chain. Otherwise, you might need to go for Spiritual. For interface it's either Degenrative or Reactive, 75% debuff 25% dmg proc.