Bopper

The name "Ambiguously Gary" always sounded rad.... Rad/Sonic

Dark still has some benefits that can't be overlooked. The main one is Dark's Soul Drain is way better than Soul's. Half the recharge (120s vs. 240s) and bigger radius (15 ft vs 10 ft).

You're quoting Corruptor numbers, Defender's have a +98.34% boost. Also keep in mind, if you fully slot out a weave, maneuvers, tactics, etc, you might improve it by 50-57%, so for 50% of the time you get better boosts to your toggles than a full enhancement set. You might be forgetting debuff powers, like Slowed Response, Time's Junction, Distortion Field. The slows, tohit debuff and defense debuff get big boosts (assuming power boost improves debuff numbers too). Also, if you are using cryo ammunition you can boost the slow effects. Again, this is a boost that can be on 50% of the time at end game. Personally I don't do that, I just use it when needed. For a power I just slot with 1 recharge boost, it brings a lot to the table. It also works well with my Grant Invisibility, turning its defense boost into Weave for 120 seconds. For a power meant to simply take a LotG is now both utility and buff. *edit* I opened up Pines and I noticed no changes in numbers for Slow effects, but Defense Debuff and ToHit Debuff did show a change. Additional edit, I looked at how much you could boost Farsight if you 6 slot it with all level 50 Hami-Os. You achieve 65% enhancement of defense and ToHit. Power Boost improves it by 98.34%. So yes, I would take power boost for Farsight, alone (which is why I got it). But digging through numbers, I didn't realize how much impact it had on other powers and what I could do with other powers (like Grant Invisibility) that made me appreciate it more.

I listed off a few examples in my last post, but it seems (based on Pines) power boost affects your mezzes, buffs, and debuffs...well the ones that could be enhanced (so not damage buffs, resistance debuffs, etc). Assuming you have 200% global recharge and another 100% enhanced, you can get power boost on a 30 second recharge with a 15 second duration (50% uptime). So any toggles that help you or others or debuff the enemies will get a boost 50% of the time. Your slowed response has a 30 second duration, making it perma boosted. Distortion fields hold effect would get boosted. Soul Drain, when it goes off would get it's ToHit buff boosted. Ultimately, it seems to have quite a bit of offensive and defensive utility. *edit* Although I'm going off of what I saw on Pines, I can't confirm if Power Boost helps with debuffs. The in game description is just vague enough that it could leave stuff to interpretation.

It certainly is. I just got done remaking my Time/DP/Soul defender into a buzz saw with capped defense, capped S/L resistance, 217.5% global recharge and enough DPS to make farmers take notice. I use Power Boost and Clarion Radial for double power boosts (well ~1.8 power boosts) for extra OPness

Powers cast prior to casting Power Boost do not get the boost, but your toggles get boosted (as they are basically all re-cast at short intervals). So Maneuvers, Weave, Tactics, etc., all get a 15 second boost. I believe Time's Juncture would have it's -ToHit debuff enhanced as well. Power boost is ideal for using before any long duration power as the boost gets applied to that power's entire duration [For what it's worth, I also grab Clarion Radial for the same reason, plus it gives me a 2 minute timer to know when to reapply Farsight, Temporal Selection, and Grant Invisibility]. I go Power Boost -> Farsight (adds an additional 12.3% defense and 12.3% to hit for 2 minutes) -> Temporal Selection (add an additional 147% regeneration for 2 minutes) -> Grant Invisibility (add an additional 2.4% defense for 2 minutes). Power Boost is on a quick recharge, too. For me it's roughly 30 seconds, up for 15 seconds, so I use it on other things when necessary, as long as I know not to use it when my Farsight needs to be reapplied within 30 seconds (the Clarion timer is useful for that, if you have countdown timer enabled. Basically if Clarion says 30 seconds or less, no more using Power Boost. Your Power Boost recharge might be different so you could use a different cutoff point). Anyways, some extra fun... Power Boost -> Dreadful Wail/Screech (add an additional 14.6 seconds to Stun). So you can apply a mag 6 stun for nearly 30 seconds without slotting for Stun. Since I slot Screech for procs (long recharge makes procs more effective), it works well for me. Power Boost -> Chrono Shift (add an additional 29.5% recovery for 30 seconds) Power Boost -> Slowed Response (add an additional -24.5% defense debuff for 30 seconds) In short, power boost is a lot of fun. It adds 98+% of a base secondary effect to so many powers. Clarion Radial (T3 or T4) does something similar, but it's 80% (for the first 10-15 seconds, then it drops to 20%, then finally 10%).

The entire basis of this argument from what I can tell is that global recharge negatively impacts PPM for procs. But unless the wiki is wrong, it says that the EFFECTIVE recharge does not affect the chance, only the base recharge (unenhanced) plus it's activation time. In fact if you read the last paragraph by Arbiter Hawk he explains specifically that global recharge does not affect proc chance either, I will also quote it here but it is on the same link as above: The paragonwiki is wrong. Keep in mind, when the game shutdown i24 only existed in Beta, so i23 was the "current" formula at the time, which used base recharge for its calculations. I have checked almost every avenue for what was supposed to be included in i24, including reading the ~800 post thread that began with Synapse's proposed change to i24 (using Global Recharge), then buried in the thread he changed course and realized it's unfair to punish players who get boosted by teammates ("here's some Chrono Shift, sorry I killed your procs, bro!"), so Synapse decided to only use enhanced recharge, not global. Testing by players today show that the enhanced recharge does use Alpha Incarnates as well (which makes sense, as Alpha is basically a global enhancement that incorporates Enhancement Diversification). Also buried in the thread I reviewed was Synapse proposing to make Area Factor less impactful (he didn't think AoEs should be so heavily penalized) so he proposed dampening the effect by 25%. His formula was New AF = 1 + 0.75(Old AF - 1). Using algebra, this means the New AF = 1 + Radius x (11 x Arc + 540) / 40,000. My testing, which included links to my references, seems to show the 25% dampening was in fact implemented. Also mentioned in the Synapse thread was the removal of 100% procs. In i23, you could guarantee a proc hitting by using it in powers with a long enough base recharge and activation time (your first quote), however Synapse believed procs should always have some sense of randomness and proposed capping it as 90% or 95%. Testing by today's players have shown that 100% procs are no longer a thing, but it's unconfirmed as to whether or not the cap is 90% or 95%. Finally, seeing as how each of the things I just mentioned from Synapse's thread was implemented, it can be assumed his proposal of a minimum probability to proc was also implemented. I forget the formula exactly, but it was something line MinProb = 5% + PPM x 1.2%. As of today, I have not seen any testing done on Minimum Probability to Proc.

You have piqued my interest, last I checked PPMs went off modified recharge which does not distinguish between slotted or global recharge but if you know better please do share. PPMs use only the recharge in the power (from enhancing and Alpha incarnates), it does not use the recharge provided from outside buffs, such as set IO bonuses, Hasten, buffs by teammates (e.g. Chronoshift), etc. As a rule of thumb, if you want to know what MRT the PPM is using, right click on the power, look at the info, and see what it says for recharge time. That is the MRT used

I don't have Mids with me to look at builds, but if I were to just look at powers, I am thinking you can do this: Both of you skip Distortion Field and Time Stop. With 2 Time's Juncture I think you can survive not having more -slow and -rch. Also, I don't think there's a scenario where you would try to Hold an AV, and I don't think you need to be scared of Elite Bosses or lower...but I could be wrong. For Sonic, skip Scream, Amplify, and Siren's Song. For Dual Pistols, skip Dual Wield and Suppressive fire. Also, for the guy playing Dual Pistols, skip Time Crawl. Only 1 of you really needs it, and Dual Pistols requires 1 more power from their range attack. For Soul take Soul Drain, Power Boost, Dark Embrace, and Summon Mistress. For pool, take Hasten, Spirit Ward, Mystic Flight, Rune of Protection, Stealth, Grant Invisibility, Kick, Tough. Again, I don't know what slotting will get you, but I imagine Tough and Dark Embrace when slotted gets you close to capped resistance for S/L. Anyways, see what you can do with that. If numbers don't look good, you can play around with different powers. Just remember you both will already have 200% recharge before slotting and set IOs, so no need to make recharge a high build goal. Also don't need defense. So if anything maybe aim for resistance bonuses and mez resistance. But no matter what you do you'll do well

There really is no single right way in this case, there are so many options. You should design for how you would like to play. Personally, I would probably have both of you pursue the Soul epic power set, as you would each get a pet for added DPS (should not be hard to perma, and you would get power boost which synergies perfectly with Farsight (as a duo, we're talking about 25% more defense and ToHit for you and your pets. Plus you get Soul Drain which you can proc the hell out of and gives a nice damage boost to Dreadful Wail and Hail of Bullets. For Incarnates, I might recommend Clarion for the status effect protection (the one think lacking with Time). Alpha, I think Musculature Radial works well with Time (extra damage, endurance mod, tohit debuff and defense debuff, iirc). Skippable powers, it all depends on how you want to play. As Sonic, you'll be the ST AV debuffer, so you'll likely want Screech, Shriek, and Shout at the very least (you can achieve over 90% resistance debuff with an attack chain of Screech-Shriek-Shout-Shriek). If you get super elite recharge, you can maybe go with Scream instead of Shout for a few more % points, but the difference in my opinion isn't enough to make it a build goal. I think for Sonic you can skip Siren's Song since Dual Pistols is an AoE monster that will wake them, and Aim (assuming you take Soul Drain), and you can skip Scream (or Shout, but take one). Shockwave, if you take it, put in the KB-to-KD enhancement in. For Dual Pistols, I skipped Dual Wield. I preferred Piercing Rounds over it because of the -res and potential for hitting multiple targets. You could skip Suppressive Rounds, but since you'll have Screech already, stacking stuns could be useful. That would allow you to both skip Time Stop if you need to. Honestly, though, I think the skippable powers will be from your power pools. You don't need Leadership, as Farsight more than makes up for Maneuvers and Tactics. If you need LotG slots, might I recommend taking Stealth and Grant Invisibility. It gives you both some defense, gives you the +Rch from LotG, and you can ninja missions if you need to. You might still want Tough, but you can skip Weave. You might want to try out Sorcery pool. Rune of Power is a 90 second mez protection with excellent resistance to all types of damage. Absorb helps eachother. And Mystic Flight could be your travel power that you put the knock back protection in. Honestly, there is so much you could do.

That is the exact test I've been wanting to do on Justin this past week. I want to know if range boosting my cones negatively impacts my cones. I recall Synapse originally wanting global recharge used for the MRT, but settled on using just Enhanced Recharge. I wonder if he also proposed using the final Range (global boosts, enhancements, etc) and never mentioned it for folks to check.

FWIW I did some testing (which I hope to continue once Justin Server is back). One of my potential findings is the correct Area Factor formula. It was initially AF = 1 + Radius x (11 x Arc + 540)/30,000 However it was proposed by Synapse (before I24 Beta testing) that the AF was too much impact on proc probabilities and proposed dampening it's effect by 0.75. His proposal was to make it: NewAF = 1 + 0.75 (AF - 1) Do the math and we get NewAF = 1 + Radius x (11 x Arc + 540)/40,000 My testing seems to show we indeed are using the NewAF

This plot assumes a 90% recharge in all powers and each attack is boosted in damage by 120% (likely from enhancements and outside buffs). The x-axis is the total recharge required for the "long-pole" power (since we assumed 90% for all powers, subtract 90% from the recharge shown to know how much additional recharge you would need from non-Alpha outside sources (Hasten, etc) to achieve the Resistance Debuff percentage and effective Damage Per Second. The chains are: shriek - scream - shriek - shout (typical ST attack chain) screech - shriek - scream - shriek (Screech has purple and javelin proc, scream has javelin proc) screech - scream - shriek - scream (Screech has purple and javelin proc, scream has javelin proc) screech - shriek - shout - shriek (Screech has purple and javelin proc, shout has javelin proc) You'll notice the first chain requires less than 200% recharge, which is why it shows up as a straight lines on the plot. You'll see each of the other chains will eventually outperform the Shriek-Scream-Shriek-Shout chain once they have enough recharge in the powers.

With Sonic, I think that splitting both ATO sets makes a good deal of sense if you can afford losing the ranged defense. This not only gives you 10% recharge twice, but 10% range twice - and that range is crucial for the cones. Doing so gives you the first three slots of your two basic attacks and your two AE damage effects. Unfortunately, the only non-unique proc that can fit Sonic's attacks is the Toxic proc. That lack of proc ability is one of the reasons I shifted to Dual Pistols. With Dual Pistols, you can get 20% for 10 sec, Achilles' Heel and Annihilation (on 4 degree cone with an extremely low AF). While there are stacking issues (primarily with Achilles' Heel - almost no one else can usefully equip Annihilation due to the AF issue), the total -resist debuffing is similar to what Sonic can do - but the damage from your attacks is enormously greater because you can triple-proc all of your single target attacks. You also get a FF engine with the target AE. Admittedly, the near-useless ultimate on Dual Pistols is a negative for the set, but Sonic's ultimate isn't really much more than a debuff/control option at this point. I do split my Superior Vigilant Assaults for two 10% recharges, but I don't split my Defender's Bastion because I want the 10% recharge with the 6-slot. I also want the Justin server to come back online so I could test what Range boosting does to the AreaFactor. I'm not sure if the original range (radius) of the cone is used or if boosting the range effectively increases the AreaFactor, which is undesirable. I do have a time/dual pistols that I slot the FF proc in almost every power. I don't recall if I do much with the -res procs, but I should revisit it as the damage from my Time/DP is fairly weak, which makes me want to re-roll into a Time/Sonic

To maximize proc probability, I try to minimize recharge in the power with the proc. Here is a link to a discussion I had with optimizing single target attack chains. The thing I mostly want to show you is the plot, however the plot is incorporating Enervating Field, which gives a -30% resistance debuff. You won't have that. Give me a few hours and I can provide you with new plots But just a heads up, I put the purple Dmg proc and the javelin Dmg proc into screech. I put another javelin Dmg proc into shout. Shriek I just 6 slot with supreme defender bastion, iirc.

Screech is incredibly useful in teams, it's the big Boss melter. With it you can achieve resistance debuffs of 90+%. Without it you might only top out at high 70s. If you're not fighting AVs, you might not notice the impact and it is replacable. For me, I use it because it gives me my optimal ST attack chain (if procs are used) and my optimal ST resistance debuff chain. Actually, I have settled on a value based attack chain using Screech-Shriek-Shout-Shriek which can achieve 90% resistance debuff and provide near optimal effective DPS. That allows me to skip scream, which would be optimal in both categories, but requires too much recharge (near capped). I should caveat this that my numbers are for my rad/sonic, so Enervating Field factors in. I know you use Force Field, so you numbers would vary

Time absolutely is fantastic when stacked. Assuming you both take leadership, here is what you can achieve: Defense 2x Farsight (25% defense, 38.5% defense when slotted) 2x Maneuvers (7% defense, 10% when slotted) So that alone gets you two to softcapped defense with a little extra to spare. Recharge 2x Chronoshift (100% recharge) 1x Temporal Selection (30% recharge) 1x Hasten (70% recharge) With some simple slotting you'll easily hit perma-Hasten/Farsight/Chronoshift, so a perma 200% recharge and softcap defense without even applying set IOs. Hitting the 400% recharge cap is certainly a possibility assuming 90-115% recharge from enhancements/alpha and the rest from set IOs. Damage 1x Temporal Selection (31.25% damage boost) 2x Assault (37.5% damage boost) A nearly "very nice" 69% damage boost to all attacks. ToHit 2x Farsight (25% To Hit, 38% when slotted) 2x Tactics (25% To Hit, 38% when slotted) With a base accuracy of 75% and an extra 76% added To Hit, you will hardly ever miss with your attacks. To Hit Debuff You already are softcapped defense, so this is just extra protection in case of defense debuffs or occasional lapses. 2x Time's Juncture (31% To Hit Debuff, 47.5% when slotted) Defense Debuff 2x Slowed Response (50% defense debuff, when slotted, even debuff resistance won't prevent you from doing them dirty) Honestly, I'm not sure what the number for defense debuff resistance should be. Pines shows 80% defense debuff when slotted, but the enhancements say they would improve the debuff by over 100%, which would results in over 100% defense debuff. So not sure if there is a bug in Pines or if my formula is wrong. Resistance Debuff 2x Slowed Response (60% resistance debuff) Pair this with sonic attack and you could absolutely decimate your opponent's healthbar. Treat resistance debuffs as a damage multiplier, so 60% resistance debuff is 60% more damage you would have done with 0% resistance debuff. Keep in mind, I'm not saying it's a damage boost (so not the equivalent of +60% damage boost). Typically a resistance debuff of X% will always result in more damage dealt than a damage boost of X%. Damage Debuff 2x Time's Juncture (50% damage debuff) This is the form of a PBAoE, so ranged attacks will still be full strength. Nonetheless, if you wanted to tank as 2 Time Defenders, you easily can stand toe--to-toe with anyone. Other stuff The 2 Time's Junctures and 2 Distortion Fields will be able to stack into a virtual immobilize, so feel free to jump into melee range with the mob and lock them down from running away. Their recharge will be floored too, so you likely will not see any of their attacks more than once. Personally, I think 2 Time/Sonic Defenders duo-ing would lay waste to anything. The stacking -res will melt an AV, just load up on damage procs for the extra DPS, as you literally will not need anything else.

I like your breakdown but what I highlighted is the only thing I feel is inaccurate justification. Due to Soul Drain having a 240 second base recharge and only a 10 foot radius, my calculations show that you can still achieve a 90% probability to proc off of 1 target with 113.5% recharge in Soul Drain. That 90% is the maximum probability to proc, which your Amplify will have. However, I believe Soul Drain would have a 90% probability to proc on each target it hits. So if you hit 3 targets, you would have a 99.9% probability to proc. Other than that, I like your take. You can have amplify up every ~30 seconds and have a 90% chance to proc, with only using 1 slot. Or you could have Soul Drain up every ~60 seconds and have a near guaranteed chance to proc (if you hit a mob), but it will cost you more slots. Also, Soul Drain will stay boosted (sans proc) for 30 seconds (and likely boosted for more damage that amplify), whereas Amplify will wear off in 10 seconds. There's definitely plenty of tradeoffs, but like you said, Amplify + Proc + Dreadful Wail will typically take care of the mob, so you won't need more than that.

You might consider the FF +Rch proc in Shockwave. I did that in my Dual Pistols build and I hit quite frequently, but I also play x8, so I always have tons of targets to hit.

This is true. I use a Time/DP/Power as my main and I feel very tanky. With Power Build Up paired with Farsight I give off a perma 31% defense boost to those near me. I was AV hunting yesterday and any teammate who stayed close never had their heal bar drop below 90%, when I was afk, some bad things happened haha.

I think you could already do that with some defenders (survive front lines). Controllers and possibly tanks might fall into that category too.

Depending on your budget, you can actually find your optimal DPS ST attack using Screech thanks to the -res debuff. In another thread I provide some of those numbers, but basically you need lots of global recharge and minimal enhanced recharge in your powers with procs.

I believe the KB to KD enhancement reduces the effects of KB by 10000%, so even though the KB is enhanced, it'll still be reduced to a KD (less than 1.0)

I've done some research on this topic recently. It focused on Force Feedback proc, but the principles should be the same. Basically there is a probability to proc on each target you hit. I believe the formula to be the following: Probability to Proc = PPM x (EnhancedRecharge + CastTime) / (60 x AreaMod) AreaMod = 1 + Radius x (11 x Arc + 540) / 40,000 For single target attack, the radius is 0, so the area mod is 1. For non-cone AoE, the arc is equal to 360.

It only lasts for about 90 seconds, but you can get Rune of Protection. It is a long recharge (600s) but you can typically get that down to less than 180, in which case you'd achieve more than 50% uptime. I believe RoP gives you status protection (as opposed to resistance) and nice resistance values (half a Force of Nature, but without the crash and it offers Psi Resistance).