Onlyasandwich

I'll do my best to address these questions, as well as make a few general observations beyond. I wouldn't worry too much about the sleep component, but I believe that the jiggle is the sleep, yes. Jacobs ladder is an easy skip for me. Yes it will be more impactful with procs, but it feels bad to use, and I'd rather invest in other more useful powers. Using as a mule is fine as well. I wouldn't sweat going much beyond softcap for your positionals. Hit softcap, then work on damage and shoring up resists where possible. Any extra def you get beyond softcap is a bonus. There are many approaches to slotting True Grit. I like my Steadfast +def to live there, and slot it out with 3 reactive + 2 Preventative medicine myself (one is the PM proc). This maximizes local resists in the power, grabs extra S/L from two sets, and even an extra bit of HP. 100% I would choose Grant Cover over oots, but I almost always pick both. The DDR is too important to pass up, and the slow resist is also strong. Note that it also a lotg mule, which allows you to use one of your other lotg slots for something else. Oots is also a great place to mule gladiator defense unique, freeing up another slot. I don't miss having a Heal. Slotting power transfer proc in stamina is nice if you have room. but not necessary. One power I want to highlight here is Deflection. Remember that Deflection provides S/L resist in addition to your positional defense - it is just as strong as tough in this regard! I would approach this with hybrid slotting. Personally I have two reactives in there on top of my defense sets. Additionally, it's worth carefully considering where you place the crit strikes ATO proc - shield charge is not a great spot. You want this to be going off in your attack chain as often as possible, buffing as many attacks as you can in the 3 second window that follows. Havoc Punch would be an okay option here. To be fair, Electric does have fewer ideal spots for this. It's also good to have several quick attacks to follow up the proc. This would be another reason to swap jacob's for charged brawl.

A very balanced build, Brasil! Reaching both S/L as well as Ranged softcaps is very strong, and you still managed to squeeze in a decent number of procs in impactful positions. Excellent recharge totals as well. I'm a big fan of the explosive strike set in kick as a tight little ranged defense mule myself. Nice way to push that final bit towards softcap. 🙂 The only thing I would consider even slightly suboptimal here is the blaster's wrath proc is kinda wasted in your nuke. It has a higher ppm than normal, and could provide its full benefit better in a lower recharge power. However, I realize the ranged defense set bonus is important to your goals here, and there isn't a clean way to keep this full set elsewhere without sacrificing other things. All in all a fair trade I think!

I make my build in mids, then drop low-ball bids on everything needed. Mostly attuned. I'll slot in the IOs as they roll in off the block, and supplement with cheap buy it now Frankenslotting to fill empty spots until the bid comes in. Sometimes I'm impatient and just pop bin prices, but doing this allows me to be lazier about my marketeering long term by saving a good chunk on every build.

Decimation proc is only really decent if parted out and stuck in a proc maximized power (long base rech, not enhanced for local rech). It's only 1 ppm, so will only go off once in a blue moon otherwise. If you aren't maximizing its proc potential, it's more of a "may as well have it" if you are wanting the set bonuses, but you won't see much return on the proc.

Volty has great set bonuses, great st damage, takes no animation time, and also saves attacks by last hitting mobs with slivers left. I'd have to have a really amazing benefit to consider dropping it.

Every build can benefit from outside scrutiny! How else do we get past our own dumb eyes? All the best builds are born of collaboration. 😃

That is certainly true, and indeed the core of what I'm looking for here. When creating a build, you set out with a series of goals. Whether those goals are optimal is a subjective and individual metric. Balancing what tradeoffs are worthwhile in pursuit of these goals while minimizing waste is the challenge I am speaking to in this conversation. You can optimize towards those goals, and objective improvements can be made in pursuit of them. In this context, a perfect build is one that achieves your goals with no further optimization possible. Even better when you can do so while keeping every element focused on maximum overall return, though it is also really interesting to see how folks use nontraditional slotting and muling strategies to achieve these ends as well. Surely there is a fight monster who you feel is polished to its utmost, and brings you a special feeling of joy and accomplishment!

Oh man, this is basically my favorite thing in CoH now. : ) I have a Grav/Energy dom that carries singy around with enflame, and speccing into TP friend was a total game-changer. Very clean build overall! One thing I've enjoyed in my dom is proccing out Enflame. I know they changed it so its procciness is no longer OP, but it still amps it up a fair bit. You of course have some very useful set bonuses here instead. Outstanding achievement with your defenses across the board, and solid resist to boot!

I love making builds, and squeezing every bit of performance out of those beautiful IOs! It doesn't have to the the perfect meta powerset combo necessarily, but continually polishing even a suboptimal character brings me great joy. Even now, I look back on builds I made months ago, scowling at my choices while moving bits and pieces that somehow missed my attention - another 1% resist here, another proc there, another slot saved. However, there are a few that have reached glorious perfection in my eyes at least! Sometimes I pull them up just to enjoy the satisfyingly complete puzzle. What builds are you especially proud of, and why? Is there anything you wish you could have achieved with them, but never found a way? As a point to start us off: I'm extremely pleased with my recent Dark/Energy Scrapper build. Part of this is thanks to the wonderful flexibility and baseline power of /Energy of course, but I was very happy with how much I was able to shore up resists and maintain softcaps without sacrificing anything in my attacks. Proccy goodness abounds, and nothing is purely a mule - every set bonus is also involving IOs that actually enhance a power meaningfully. Of course he plays like a dream as well! Infinite end, smooth aoe and single target, excellent damage and survivability in all situations. The final cherry is near-immunity to slows, something I strive to incorporate in all of my characters these days.

The aoe is more of a grindstone than a meteor. That being said, tremor is good and procs well, while fault can do a little damage while accelerating tremor with ffback. It's a bit better on tankers, who can slot the psi damage proc in it as well. Careful timing of fault and tremor does indeed allow you to keep every mob near you on the ground. Some sets will appreciate this mitigation trick more than others, but I like it for content that is off type for my armor. Employing this strategy, my ice tank can survive just fine in a fire farm. The set as a whole takes to proccing a little better than average. Good to have a ffback enabler somewhere in your single target chain. Ultimately not every primary has to be king of the hill, and stone definitely feels good to play, with a few unique tricks. I do wish hurl boulder were more than a set mule.

Soul Drain + heavy proc usage is indeed a joy with Dual Pistols. : D I have a Poison/DP that just dances around and has a great time. /DP has better than average procability, as the potential effects from different ammo influence what sets a power can take, yet the procs from those sets apply no matter what ammo is active.

On mobile so can't break it open, but looks pretty good just on a scan through! Will be a great character. Edit: Pulled it up in Mids - looking really good indeed! Very clean build overall I think. I see you went with Speed of Sound instead of Hasten, which is totally fine of course. I do like Speed of Sound for the quick teleport and speed on demand, but have personally swapped it for Combat Teleport on most builds where I used previously. I don't like having to toggle it on/off to use Jaunt, and the on-demand binds I tried for Jaunt were wonky. You'll make your own judgement on that end of course - it is a matter of taste. A few very small optimizations: The new Launch Jumping/increased height IO will give you more jump height in Inertial reduction. It's actually a pretty big difference! Additionally, you are pretty far over ED cap on both Acc and Heal for Transfusion, and the 5 piece bonus (2.25 end) isn't doing anything amazing. You could steal the acc/heal slot and drop it elsewhere as you like. You could then drop that slot in Tough with a 2 piece Titanium (Res, end/res) - go ahead and boost it for fun so you hit S/L cap and get some bonus E/N resist from the set. This leaves you overcapped to S/L, so you can trade the Oblit Damage IO in Short Circuit for Winter set Acc/Dam/End, which gives you better enhancement and some extra F/C resist to boot. All in all, from moving that one slot, you gain ~2 S/L resist, 6 F/C resist, 1.5 E/N resist, and get some extra acc and end redux in an important aoe. Alternatively, the Preventative Medicine Proc is very strong defensively, and worth dropping into Health. I'd probably do that instead myself, actually. This proc works the same and automatically no matter where it is slotted. The absorb it provides is pretty darn strong, and comes up when you need it! You could swap the slotting for Weave and Maneuvers to have the scaling IO at an earlier level. I hope you're having a blast with both characters here! I'd love to hear how they compare with one another in performance when you have a good feel for them. Traditionally as @Darkir mentioned Corruptor might be a little more optimal for Kins, as you can still hit damage cap with Fulcrum (though it does take more targets), but do more damage with blasts. I think the improvements to /elec and defender modifiers for sapping might give you a decent edge defensively however, and Defenders have an easier time boosting resists and hitting softcap.

If you're going to combine Shield and elec, this is quite a wonderful way to go! Stalker elec helps solve the single target problem the set has by replacing Taunt/confront with the ever-wonderful assassin strike.

I really wanted to love my claws/FA, but man - that mob dispersion is a real joy-killer. EM/FA would really burn down an AV, in any case! If you can do without the Taunt Aura, I'm sure the thread Bill linked will have some good grist. @Sovera has many excellent FA builds that could translate to other classes. 🙂

Rad/ is going to provide generally excellent resists across the board, but takes some doing to build up defense, and its survivability is less overall in the most optimized build if considering purely survivability, as it lacks DDR. SR/ is my vote for optimal unkillable beast, and offers a lot of slotting flexibility. If you are trying to make SR/ truly unkillable (relatively speaking), focus on a broad range of baseline resist and modest +hp bonuses so your scaling resists can meet the challenge across the board. Ice/ is awesome and I love it, but I it does not compete with these others in terms of ultimate staying power. It has great end support and aggro tools though. Inv/ is truly a monster in most content, but will take some build sacrifices if you are trying to max Psi res as well, though it is achievable. This would be my firm choice if you are not concerned about Psi damage, but there is a decent amount of Psi in various incarnate trials. /DM is probably the best overall secondary for survivability, though the knockdowns of /Stone are worth attention as well - you can keep them flat down back to back with careful timing of fault and tremor. As @PLVRIZR mentioned, Shield/ might be the strongest overall, but I didn't see it on your list. I realize not every concept fits the theme!

I generally only bother boosting where there is no loss in doing so (Purples, PVP sets, regular IOs, singleton set IOs). Sometimes I might boost an IO or two in a set where the extra enhancement helps me get over a certain goal in post 50 content (say that last .4 defense before softcap), but only if the set bonus lost when exemping is relatively inconsequential. I'll often do this with the 1.5 S/L bonus provided by 2 slot red fortune. The extra defense can be nice, and I won't be sweating the small S/L resist loss when exemping, but will have it when I need it in tougher content. 2 slot lotg is another common example - boost the +def IO and only lose 10% regen when exemping.

While you do have to account for cost to cast, it is after all a +end power, and a strong one at that. Even with no endmod and against a single target, you are still end positive upon casting. I like to slot it with lotg 5 piece. That + the shield wall unique as you have here would be solid. Synapse's Shock is a fine alternative of course, and will help you use it as a real end support tool in single target only situations. Base end slotting will top you off in crowds either way. Also another reason to consider musculature radial for the Alpha as well. I typically use EA as an excuse to abandon other end support powers on Ice armor. Since it animates so quickly, and you want to be spamming it anyhow for +def in most situations, you lose very little in the trade - conserve power won't really be necessary at all. I think this build would benefit from either investing in another epic, or abandoning epics in favor of tactics or maybe a lotg mule. I can confirm that the defense is enhanceable in-game on EA.

Stalkers get a really nice unique t9 in place of hibernate, and defense sets are generally great on stalkers anyhow. Tankers have strong base values that allow you more slotting flexibility elsewhere. For attack set, just go on a theme you enjoy. Ice melee is actually really good on stalkers too! You might consider an ice/ice stalker. One general consideration is that Ice armor provides strong end support, so end heavy attack sets are easier to bear. I really enjoy my ice/stone tanker.

To be fair ice gets along quite well for the most part without. It just has this unique tool that allows you to push the limits and pull through unscathed.

Different definitions of strongest available for sure! Storm is an amazing secondary. I think demon/ea provides a unique combination of adaptability, ease of use, and strong damage given these other strengths. By no means at the top of the charts for damage - just relative to these other factors.

Just for fun I put together another iteration - this one opening up power selection completely. The goal is keeping all softcaps, and just generally pumping every resist as much as possible across the board, without focusing on one in particular. If you want to turn Ice/ into a total brick, this will do it. The result is a strong layer of Psi res, much higher S/L, and a bit more Fire. There are some tricks to pursuing E/N, but it really isn't worth it. The goal with this build is just to grab every potential low-hanging juicy resist bonus I can stack. As before, it relies heavily on EA for end support, but as a brick you want to be spamming it for all the defense pad you can get anyhow! It also does a good job of grabbing aggro. : ) Note that this build does pick up Hibernate as well, which I would encourage you to at least try if you haven't before. As @Warboss points out, it doesn't cause you to lose aggro right away, and you can pull off some special tricks that come in handy in niche content like 801 missions. You can grab aggro and go invulnerable while taking the first wave of attacks, then pop out before the mobs get distracted elsewhere. Remember you can cancel it whenever you want. I have slotted Hoarfrost super weirdly, but there you go - max resist/defense after all! This is absolutely not what I would call a "balanced" build. Attacks are actually okayish here, as the optimal slotting for this purpose does allow some decent enhancement with the right placement. I did keep the absorb proc as well, and you have some very modest global recharge to fuel it all. As a fun bonus, you now have a second hold to stack with Seismic, and it does workable damage while you're at it. A fun exercise, in any case!

Demons/ea is one of the, if not the strongest MM combo out there. Can just wade in with pets and go to town in any situation. Very busy with clicky powers though. The real game changer to me beyond other sets like nature that provide resist is that you give mez protection to your pets as well, most importantly kb protection.

Agreed, though I'm certainly all for a solid balance pass on the set at some point. Sometimes it's fun to work with a set that comes with different or more extreme weaknesses than usual and turn it into something great with a thoughtful build. I'm not saying that a set should be designed to fill this niche, but there is entertainment value to be had where it already exists.

I did go ahead and test this - you are correct @Warboss. Hop in mob, catch aggro, pop Hibernate. They still attempt to wail on you in vain for the duration of your most recent taunt effect. Additionally, just for fun I hopped into a +4x8 Briggs fire farm on my own build to see how it fares even with its low fire defenses. It certainly can't just stand there and take it to the face, but will survive indefinitely if I'm careful about timing how I chain Fault and Tremor. Have to start Tremor right around when they are starting to stand up so they fall back down as soon as they're on their feet. Otherwise spam EA on cooldown and it holds up indefinitely. Eventually Hoarfrost kicks in to heal up attrition damage, or I hop into Ice block if that is on cooldown.

Further update - I dug in to see what I would change if my priorities lined up more with yours, while keeping power selection as is. Build below. A few freebies to point out: No reason not to move the PM proc to Hoarfrost - it is taking a slot either way. May as well get the set bonus. The Winter recharge resist IO as I mentioned is purely redundant - you are already way overcapped on this stat. Combat jumping has no use for -end - no reason not to drop a lotg in there. No reason not to move reactive def +res unique to match the set in weave. Things I otherwise moved about: Swapped slow set slotting to an area that better benefits the goals of overall resist and patching F/C defense. Otherwise I moved a few slots around to grab low-hanging bonuses for F/C or S/L here and there. There is a huge amount of room to re-optimize this build for higher S/L if you wish. I found a spot for the gladiator +def unique - this was missing! Shifted a few uniques down to earlier levels - doesn't matter unless exemping down, but there is no loss in doing so. As a result you have a nice bump to defense across the board, and are now hitting 78 FR, with other small improvements beyond. The only thing sacrificed was 5 seconds off Build Up's recharge. I did remove the Numina unique to get a 5th lotg in glacial and thus a nice S/L resist bump as well. Honestly you have a huge fountain of end with EA and don't need the Numina, but could swap it back for sure if you prefer. This build also sports a little more global recharge. A quick note - Ragnarok F/C bonus is hitting rule of 5 and wasted. I kept it in the interest of preserving your KD proc - not sure how attached you are to it. This is true of your original build as well. I would probably put another set in there myself. There are many other defensive directions you could focus of course. You could sacrifice ~10% Fire res for a really healthy layer of Psi res, or a strong bump to S/L. I just sort of rolled with the focus at hand. Additionally, here is a version that maintains the spirit of your build, but treats Seismic Smash as the beautiful attack it is while keeping the absorb proc. This also picks up a modest amount of extra S/L resist. It does lose some E/N defense, but maintains softcap. I got a little carried away and moved away further end support in stamina to pump S/L with some sets. EA really is that good! also moved around other slotting to re-optimize while avoiding the rule of 5.