Onlyasandwich

What ma attacks do you have?

Given the radius and toggle aura nature, it will be very poor. As @Carnifax has mentioned, i wouldn't bother with any procs in d field at all. Technically you get a decent number of activations over the course of the power, but it is very underwhelming in practice. Lockdown even has a lower ppm than normal. You'd see it pop off here and there, but not a great investment.

OwtS is a matter of taste, really. I typically take it as a sometimes useful power that mules out one of the +def iOS. It's a very flexible mule - even takes the PM absorb proc. If you share your build I'd be happy to provide other insight. Even on a defense set, I would consider Storm Kick a strong addition to a Tanker's arsenal. If you're referring to Thunder Kick, that is of course not skippable.

I really enjoy this question! While I'll never have a totally static answer, it would be something like this: Blaster: Fire/electric - The classic beast with the best of all worlds. Brings the already amazing ST damage in Fire/ to 11 with two of the best DPA melee powers out there. Defender: TA/A these days. TA is so fluid and powerful now, and works equally well solo and on teams. Any secondary is fine - this just happens to be a set on which I prefer matching theme. Every power comes back fast, and you don't have to worry about positioning for anchors, or whether teammates are nearby for buffs to gain maximum benefit. You just shoot things and it works out. 🙂 Controller: Fire/Storm - Nothing has quite the epic feel of Fire/Storm! Other combos may be similar in power, and almost everything else is easier on the blue bar, but Fire/Storm is not only visually stunning, but brings gobs of damage to the table alongside solid controls. Tanker: Rad/War Mace - Rad is easy peasy and works in every type of content, and opens up slotting pretty well as you don't need any extra end support. War Mace is crunchy both for aoe and ST damage. Combined, you have a super flexible tank that can go all out in any content and does great damage in all situations. Brute: I don't play a lot of Brutes, so don't have a very good answer here. I liked my TW/Electric pretty well, but others will have more useful input here. Scrapper: I'll go with my DM/EA for now - smooth as butter in all content. Never dies, damage type that is rarely resisted, built-in blue bar and health tools. All the damage a Scrapper could want, but oddly soothing to play. Dominator: Plant/Fiery/Fire - The APP here is important, as so much of a Dom's character is reliant on their Epics - more than on other ATs. This combo absolutely blasts out damage on all fronts, and can handle really tough content and surprises as long as you stay focused on cycling your controls where needed. Stalker: I've only played a few stalkers. It is home to be best combo for Elec/Shield, and I have one of those. It's really fun! Corruptor: Obviously going to overlap with Defender, but there are some combos that gain more than they lose on Corruptors. I'm rather fond of my Kin/Dark. Kin I think feels more at home on a corruptor, and Dark gives some extra proc opportunities, as well as some interesting control elements that are otherwise lacking in the support set. Mastermind: Another AT I haven't played a lot of. Demons/Dark is great fun though! Demons are very tanky, and Dark has all you need to support them. You can also proc out the whip powers to do respectable damage, giving you something fun and useful to do besides spamming heals and fearsome stare. Another very active combo that requires proactive application of debuffs and controls to stay alive. Very thematic as well. Sentinel: I love my Elec/Nin! Electric is one of the few sets that actually stands out a bit on Sentinels vs. Blasters, given the extra damage afforded Tesla Cage here. Nin is a pretty complete kit, and allows me to work very autonomously. The confuse power slotted with the purple proc is a handy trick too.

Yes. You want it for ddr and slow resist.

MA goes really well with anything, really. The only real point of special synergy to consider would be the +def from Storm Kick, which is quite strong. Even this is pretty universally helpful. Defense based sets like Shield appreciate the extra pad for overcoming debuffs, or edge in incarnate content, while resist based sets will find it easier to ride softcap without bending over backwards.

I am making direct comparison to MA in this case, rather than to attack sets as a whole. To be fair, this may be better positioned as a strength of MA than any failing of StJ. One exceptional element of MA is that its best rotations involve really snappy powers across the board.

In the case of StJ, CU is required for good performance. Eagle's Claw is a silly power that can be effective, but you can be equally effective without it. MA doesn't hinge on it at all. The speed of CU is a bit more relevant for StJ than other sets as so much of its performance is tied up in this power. I don't find CU to be "too slow" in experience - it is still a very good power. The visceral feeling of punching something to the moon is indeed the best reason to take StJ in my book! The animation is great. However, even for the best DPA attacks in the universe, having a slower animation is still at least a difference worth noting. MA's ideal attack chains are snappy whip whip kick kick with very little chance for corpse whiffing at all.

SJ actually parses out well in ideal scenarios like Pylon tests, but has a few practical shortcomings that in my experience hold it back in regular play. Too much of the power budget is spent on Crushing Uppercut. The other attacks are pretty good when procced, but nothing out of the ordinary. CU is exceptional, but a bit conditional given the combo point system, and also has a rather long animation time. Spinning Strike is okay, but basically inferior to Dragon's Tail in every way, and Sweeping Cross is still not a very effective aoe even with the Gauntlet buff. MA is super efficient and has snappy animations for all the best powers. Eagle's Claw is usable, but very optional. It helps that Storm Kick also stacks strong extra defense for Tankers! The additional synergy is welcome especially on Shield, giving you a nice pad to overcome heavy defense debuff scenarios. Edit: Please no combo update for MA! It's fun to have interactive mechanics, but also good to have sets that allow you to focus on the powers themselves rather than combos.

If poison is not your cup of tea, Rad Emission can definitely be made rather poisonous. Water blast can also be colored appropriately. Blast that nasty juice!

They're both fine combos, but shield/ma all the way. More damage from your primary, similar defenses. I also vastly prefer MA to SJ on tanker. SJ is just too lacking in aoe for my taste. MA may only have DT, but DT is amazing.

Apologies! I know there is shorthand in coh builds that isn't exactly intuitive if you haven't visited the process before. "Softcap" is 45% defense in a given position or type, as @Without_Pause mentioned. We call this softcap because while you can technically gain more defense past this point, it is redundant in normal content, as 45% reduces the enemy's chance to hit to the floor of 5%, thus it is a "soft" limit on the effectiveness of stacking defense. There are two broad categories of defense - Typed and Positional. Super Reflexes offers positional (ranged, melee, aoe), meaning you want to layer positional defense bonuses such that you reach 45% for all three, ideally. Ignore the typed defenses (Smashing, Lethal, Energy, etc) in this case, as they won't be relevant. Resistance is still relevant. Super Reflexes also offers built-in scaling resistance on top of what you can obtain elsewhere - you gain substantial resist as you lose HP, making you incredibly tough to burn down. By "defense uniques" I am referring to two specific IOs, both in the resist set category: Steadfast protection +def/res, and Gladiator's Armor Tp Protection/def all. Each of these, when slotted, provide 3% defense to everything for a total of 6% defense on top of your existing totals. By "resist uniques" I am referring to two defense set IOs: Reactive Defenses, Scaling Resist Damage and Shield Wall +res/teleport res. Both provide substantial resistance to all types for only one slot invested. The "rule of 5" is a basic rule of IO set bonuses, like those provided in the luck of the gambler set. You can only benefit from 5 set bonuses of a given type. For example, if you have more than 5 set bonuses that add 9% to global accuracy, any additional 9% accuracy bonuses are completely wasted. You can read more about the nuances here: https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Invention_Origin_Enhancements

A very fun combo which I'm sure you'll enjoy! Without delving too deep, a few notes: You are not at Melee softcap - this should be your first defensive priority. You are also missing both +def uniques, which can get you there more easily. Additionally, find a way to fit the +res uniques as well. Quickness is not really something I would recommend skipping. Elude would be an easy drop, as it is very redundant with SR's core strengths once built appropriately. Broadly speaking, you are focused too much on full 6 slot bonuses, where a more hybrid strategy mindful of focused goals would be more beneficial. Follow Up is not just a buff - it is an attack. If you don't slot it as an attack, it can actually decrease your overall damage due to animation wasted on an attack that does very little. Shockwave is outstanding, and I would not recommend skipping. You are over rule of 5 for an entire lotg set. The 6th set literally provides no set bonuses to you. @Bill Z Bubba and others have posted some great SR builds out there. I would recommend pulling a few up and importing slotting strategies as you are inspired.

Anything that operates well at pbaoe range is ideal, as you will want to be in melee range for Time's Juncture. Fire, Water, Electric, and Rad are good from this perspective, as you don't have to rely on their respective cones for good aoe rotation. Beyond that, Time is super flexible and will go great with any primary. If you want to incorporate cones, I would encourage you to consider Combat Teleport along with some good binds to use it easily. This thread has some great ones:

I'd have to login to see for sure if the visual dissipates. I think it does.

Electric/nin sentinel and go all force lightning all day. 🙂 I feel like a Jedi demands a little more of a bag of active tools than SR or WP offers. If going melee, my vote is DB/EA. I get what you mean with the invis power though. For what it's worth, this is a very powerful combo with many great builds already explored in the scrapper forum.

Don't forget the ever classic fire/elec! This is the supreme combo if you want to maximize single target damage. Charged brawl and shocking grasp are some of the best dpa attacks out there, and havoc punch isn't far behind.

Oh man. Oh my. Oh no.

My thoughts comparing these two sets - SR: Can be more mindlessly immortal once properly slotted out, due to scaling res. Almost full immunity to defense debuffs. Allows unparalleled flexibility in slotting, as needs are mostly served just by basic slotting in primary. It's really hard to screw up a SR build. +Recharge buff helps juice towards optimal attack chains. Shield: More damage! AAO is great of course, and the burst from charge is welcome. Can achieve mostly the same defense numbers as SR, with more proactive resists on top, so you don't have to play the dance of death to get to optimal toughness. Can still achieve DDR better than primaries that are not SR, due to stacking potential of Active Defense. However, double stacking AD is moderately annoying, as it takes up even more animation time and end in your rotation. Harder to go all out on procs and other goodies, as you need to balance +def and +res bonuses to get to the same totals as SR. No scaling res means your top-end performance for exotic resists is never going to be quite as good. A couple extra spots for +psi res IOs if you really want to try and cover the Psi hole that these sets share. A little extra juice for +hp built-in. Not huge, but nice. Less concept flexibility - this character better be okay having a shield! Ultimately I think Shield is more powerful overall if properly built, but that is taking damage into the equation as well. SR is going to be tougher across the board, except perhaps against Psi if you are prioritizing such IO bonuses in Shield. Shield/Energy is probably one of the best overall Tanker combos out there. AAO buffs EM to whacky numbers, and Shield Charge helps supplement the only moderate (and conditional) aoe available within EM as well. Both primaries are very strong - it really comes down to survivability vs damage, though SR isn't exactly a damage slouch given the extra proc flexibility.

Good morning, @oedipus_tex! This isn't a total rehaul, as the build itself is fundamentally really solid. I reworked it with bone smasher procced out with MoT and friends as described. Note that Hecatomb proc actually contributes more damage over time in the attack chain here than in Total Focus, even though it is of course a higher per attack contribution on average in TF. Ideally, you want every motivation to spam your MoT proc power as much as possible, so make it shine! A few other things: Rejiggered Whirling Hands for much better damage while still contributing some good bonuses. Plussed out the shield walls. Since they are PVP IOs, they act as attuned even if 50+5. Worked in Reactive Defense scaling res - pretty important one! In doing so, managed a bit of extra psi res by squeezing in the Aegis unique, making up for the bit lost from 6 slot MoT. Overall, I would consider dropping Weave. It does bring you to incarnate softcaps and houses a nice set, but even in incarnate content I think you'll find yourself plenty sturdy without it. You could pick up Combat Teleport and redistribute slots to make up for these lost bonuses, and drop a lotg in Agile for good measure. Given that Perf shifter +end proc doesn't show up in end recovery stats, I think you'll be okay on end for the most part. If you drop weave, you'll be even more solid on that front. Build:

Upon pulling it up, I see that Super Speed was toggled on, so that's a big chunk of what was displayed. Not too bad in reality after disabling SS, even with FA on! You have ~1.4 end/sec to attack with, and EM is fairly light on end. This should be pretty solid. I like the overall picture here! I'm going to bed now, but will do a deeper dive later. Hasten for CT is a tough call. EM definitely still appreciates the extra juice here, but CT is fun and has many strategic uses. I prefer my hastenless builds to have FFback mixed in if possible, but there isn't a spot in EM. I generally prefer taking the T3 on a tanker (Bone Smasher in this case) for the Might proc, and hitting a 4 piece Might + a couple damage procs to keep this from cutting into my ST damage too much rotating it in. Others prefer a more carefree approach and slot it in their aura, or even an aoe where it will go off a lot in the alpha. I like it in a relatively proc optimized mid tier single target attack so it is more relevant in hard target scenarios too. You can also manage a triple stack pretty reliably in a longer battle this way, vs a 1-2 stack in a less proctimized attack or an aura. Energy Punch is just a teensy bit ahead on DPA, but Bone Smasher has modestly better proc percentages. EP will be more complete chain filler if you go hastenless.

I'll pull this up in mids and provide more detailed input later! One thing that stands out is end consumption. With FA on you are in very unsustainable territory. Are you relying on it to hit, or is it a "sometimes" power here?

I would definitely drop Fighting for sorcery. I don't miss it on my grav/energy Dom. It's really nice not having to deal with the extra toggles. Rune is also useful in more situations than tough, and requires minimal slot investment. Spirit ward is a great mule for the pm absorb proc. Unlike heals, absorbs actually work on singularity, so ward meaningful contributes to pet survival with its continual absorb tics.

Consider whether you might be able to swap in sorcery and enjoy the beauty that is an enflamed singularity with tp friend. It looks super cool, and adds another layer of fairly passive input burning baddies to the ground. It's extra good on Doms because it goes off their above average ranged damage modifier.

Here is my own SR/MA build for comparison. I have not invested much into +HP, but do have moderate boost to resist. This is a proc-heavy build, as I am wont to make. 🙂