Onlyasandwich

For easy street high level performance, it's pretty much Rad/, SR/, Shield/, Invuln/, and to an extent Bio/. Bio is actually sort of tricky to balance optimally for survivability and damage. Everything else is still quite good, but not quite on that level. Honestly Electric is pretty close. It isn't really fair to compare other resist sets to Rad though. The proc damage potential, strong resists across the board, lack of true weaknesses, and abundant endurance are just that good. DA is all about Dark Regen, which is amazing. The control auras are sort of a sideshow that can be pretty useful. Honestly if DA just had native KB protection and its end management were better, that's all it would take to bring it in line with the big guns. Still, every Tanker armor set is really good when built appropriately. Theme and how fun you find the powers is what should guide you.

Both of these are fairly middle of the road combos from a Meta power perspective, but I'd give the edge to EA/DM overall. This is due to: EA's superior overall resist package. End management. DM benefitting very strongly from Tanker aoe's (Shadow Maul becomes outstanding) No extra slotting needed for KB protection. That being said, both would be very workable and good. DA/EM's main trick as others have noted is stun stacking, which to be fair is really great.

We had a fun and detailed exploration of it in this thread:

Thanks for sharing your build, @EnjoyTheJourney! How have you been enjoying this particular journey? I felt inspired by the combo and think it will be my next alt. I went a more heavily procced out on aoes, and doubled down on the epic aoe as well in mine. Still debating: Ways to maintain (more or less) S/L softcap without muling out Brawl. I could swap tentacles for smite and pop the set there where it's actually useful. However, I'm not sure if perhaps my attack chain will be fine as is. You parsed yours quite a bit - what do you think? I actually like tentacles as an opener. The immob is really handy, and it has a good sized cone and target cap. E/N resists. I see you really focused on shoring this up, which isn't a bad idea. I'd have to sacrifice some end management or procs to refocus mine. I wonder how much of an issue this will be in practice with softcap defense here, and Geode as a backup to recover. Stone Skin slotting. I typically try to do something clever here, but am not impressed by what I can gain refocusing with low hanging set bonuses. Perhaps there is something I'm missing! Earth's Embrace. I think I'm okay with the fairly minimal slotting here. On Sent /Stone, base recharge is high enough that this isn't a super operable heal to rely on, and mostly here to pump your max hp. I'd love to squeeze in full PM set, but had to pull slots to address defense priorities. This is an interesting build to balance. Umbral Torrent. I really want to like this power, and would even consider giving it a shot with the low target cap if the cone were longer and wider. Does anyone enjoy it? It is rather snappy, and has interesting proc options. My experience with 40 ft 30 degree cones is not super positive. Meanwhile it's a skip. T1 vs T2 blast. Dark Blast looks slightly lower DPA, though pretty close if you're not proccing. Did you choose it because the attack chain needs the extra bit of filler here and there, or other reasons? Here's my build for reference: Sentinel (Dark Blast - Stone Armor).mbd Text: Chunk:

I went ahead and finalized things for now, and thought I'd share my update. I did try the Overwhelming KD proc in Acid Mortar, and decided it was pretty decent value. Not a game changer, but enough passive mitigation to be worth a slot - at least moreso than the remaining sets available to me. Probably the closest second place was capping out my slow resist with a brawl mule, but the expense tipped it in favor of the proc this time. : ) Here it is for posterity. If anyone digs in and has feedback, still appreciated of course! Defender (Traps - Beam Rifle).mbd I put it through its paces on a +4X8 S/L farm, and it has zero issues as long as I pay a little attention. This is a little surprising, as defense based builds without DDR tend to fare poorly in this environment. However, the baseline resists and extra -tohit from Seekers, along with a trickle from Triage beacon goes a surprisingly long way.

Sure! With everything accounted for, you're at 55.68% ranged defense. I'm not sure what totals you are reviewing, but this is from the latest mids version 3.7.4 with updated database. I am set to "attacked" as well, so stealth is only showing the lower value. No bonus from Infiltration either. Softcap is 45%. As for my build, I was going primarily for ranged defense, and achieved it rather easily without many set bonuses, as Defenders have higher baseline values. I was then looking for fun things to do with a couple spare slots, and found I could hit melee softcap as well for a happy bonus. I wouldn't consider it an important goal, but it only took a small adjustment to my build, and I wouldn't gain any appreciable damage or other utility by dumping it as a sideline.

It doesn't work this way for pet powers. The power is being cast by the pet, not by you, and won't be affected. Meanwhile, juicing recharge allows you to cast the pet more often. This is also true of psuedopets like rain powers and persistent effect fields (poison trap is one such example). If you ever aren't certain, look at the city of data entry. Look for a pet entity that is summoned. Poison trap's cod page: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=corruptor_buff.traps.poison_trap&at=corruptor

Not a bad baseline! End consumption is pretty manageable, and accuracy is pretty solid in most powers. Most of your power choices are sensible as well. A little overkill on ranged defense bonuses though. not the worst thing to have a little pad, but you could edge back and juice damage with more procs in some places. A few general insights: Acid Mortar would benefit from additional recharge. I have tested it with various procs, and didn't find it worthwhile return. Multiple casts of the mortar stack their -res, and you can get good overlap with better recharge. You haven't used the Scourging Blast ATO set. Splitting this into 2 sets of three helps you double up on recharge with little sacrifice. One of these triples would do well in Acid Mortar (all the elements but the proc that have recharge) The extra recharge on Aim isn't a great return. Consider swapping one for the gaussian buildup proc. I also don't find Caltrops worthwhile for procs, though some disagree. It's a very slow return. I go baseline with a set IO that includes Range/Slow plussed out. The extra range is pretty nice for flexibility in battle., as otherwise it's a bit short. I wouldn't go Energy Mastery. You don't have much that really benefits from the power boost effect of power build up (FFgen and Seekers don't inherit it as they're pets), so it's basically just a really long recharge build up. You'll get better resists from Mu, and can grab Power Sink if you really want an extra end tool. Extra lotg in combat jumping does almost nothing. Rain of Arrows is painfully underslotted. Procs are nice to add here, but it deserves good baseline enhancement. Poison trap needs accuracy to hit. The procs are nice, but you need local accuracy and preferably some recharge here as well. Ranged Shot, like Rain of Arrows, needs actual enhancement beyond procs. Sting of the manticore has a really efficient 3 slot range defense bonus that would help you shift away from high investment bonuses like the 6 slot Gladiator's in Temp invuln, which isn't really doing much for you beyond the 6th bonus. Seeker Drones are your main opener. I highly suggest slotting for -tohit, as they stack powerfully for it. Each Seeker pops its own 15 ft aoe of -tohit. They also eat the alpha strike. By the time things can target you, their damage and tohit is gutted. Cloud senses even offers a Ranged defense 6 slot bonus if you want to keep leaning on this power for defense bonuses. There's more that I would do if building for myself (incorporate slow resist, balance things out with more procs in my ST attacks are among them), but this is where I'd start! Although it is by no means 1:1, here is a recent traps defender I made. You might find some of the slotting philosophy useful for reference. Defender (Traps - Beam Rifle).mbd

I can't import chunks into the latest mids (copy/paste won't work!) Mind attaching a build file?

Hi folks! I've been slowly revisiting a few builds impacted by the last page update as I find inspiration, and this guy is the latest round. I'd love some input on final tweaks, as well as your perspective on the current state of epic power pools in general. Previously this guy ran Electric Mastery mostly for the superior damage types in the armor, with power sink as a backup for end. However, Temporal Bomb takes some end pressure off, and I feel like the current build gets by just fine without additional end support, so would like more utility out of my epic. What I've gone for: Softcap Melee and Ranged Proc optimized attacks where there's an interesting baseline to leverage. Slow resist. Max hit chance against +3's. Stack as much recharge and S/L resist as I can find without sacrificing the above. Slotting questions: I have a couple clear flex slots (2nd in triage, 5th in maneuvers). They both feel pretty solid, but perhaps you see a better place where they could add great value? Of special note would be the potential of swapping one or both to a 4th Shield wall and/or a 6th Ragnarok for the exotic resists. However, they're mostly for resists that have low baseline totals, so relatively low impact. @Psyonico mentioned trying the overwhelming kd proc in acid mortar for the flat 20% kd chance. Has anyone tested this? Sounds like it could be meaningful secondary mitigation. Power questions: Do you see other epic opportunities with great benefit? I like that I get very clear utility out of every Dark Mastery power here, and nothing is purely a mule. Stun stacking with Lancer and Overcharge is hard to pass up, especially with no extra animation time. I tried Psi mastery initially, hoping that the new TK would be fun. However, I found the epic version to be super trashy garbage. I don't understand why they had to hit it so hard! Double the recharge, half the targets, and half the radius of the Mind Control power. I know it shouldn't be full power, but it's just too much. What is your experience with this power? Have you found good uses? I have grown to greatly dislike cutting beam over the years. Just unsatisfying dpa even procced, and a narrow cone. Do you feel this is misguided? Am I alone in thinking Defender epics in general are pretty lacking outside of the armors these days, unless you really want a melee attack? I understand they may be doing further epic passes later on now that they've normalized some things - looking forward to it! Note that procs are disabled in charged shot to avoid ffback skewing. Build: Defender (Traps - Beam Rifle).mbd Chunk:

They'll affect other pets, so useful as a mule on a mastermind so they can invest more productive slots in their minions.

Ah, one of the set normalizations from the last page then. Mids is missing a lot of stuff related until the next update. I wonder if the one I still have slotted will still work. I know set bonuses don't, but am guessing the proc would. Sort of silly that they take pet sets though, as basically all the enhancement values within would be useless. Of course ranged damage never made sense either.

I think Seekers doesn't get nearly enough credit in general. Its -tohit is a bit higher than mids suggests. Corruptors get -5 per seeker, which is enhanceable to ~9%. This may not seem amazing, but it stacks per seeker! ~18% -tohit is pretty hefty, and the 15 foot radius is good enough to get strong overlap, not to mention the stacking -20% damage debuff. They also take the Decimation buildup proc, which doesn't sound useful at first. However, It actually procs the effect on the caster, and does so with more reliability than pretty much anything else that could take it! 90% chance with no recharge slotted. This means a great opener also buffs your damage, giving you even better followup on that opener. Especially good on a Corruptor.

I love that most everything is a reticle target, so I can shoot through floors and from behind walls. There are so many persistent patch effects that I feel like a true master of the battlefield, especially when combined with /TA. Damage is surprisingly great as you noted. Some powers don't proc out as well as you might expect (sleep grenade), but still do very solid damage alongside their control potential. The gun drone is a freaking champion as well. There isn't a power I don't like in the set.

I love that Controllers give me so many different fun approaches to a battle. Do I drop an aoe hold, engage with my soft control layered with other tools, summon in a pet, play with positioning, or maybe just open up the damage cannister if my defenses are up for it? All of the above! My favorite controllers have a lot of really effective buttons to push, and therefore backup plans for interesting situations, whether it be a resistant group (can't slow those war wolves!) or overaggro chaos. I really enjoy powers that let me layer in procs so damage is a powerful side-effect of doing all the fun stuff I already wanted to do, rather than focusing on blasts to melt things. Sneaking procs all throughout my build so everything just layers on the hurt is very satisfying. I agree that defense is more effective as a strategy to keep yourself alive than resist, but typically it involves too much sacrifice in terms of recharge and proc opportunities. Resists can come incidentally alongside an epic resist shield, and I can instead focus on maximizing damage and leaning on raw control power to survive. Some sets lend themselves to a defense strategy more easily. /Dark, /Time, and /FF, and /Traps are especially good on that front. Doubly so for /Dark and /Time, as they include endurance tools as well, which open up slotting.

In some cases they have a slight edge in defense due to the values brought by hide.

While it will work well enough on a scrapper, stalkers have the best version of staff. You lose innocuous strikes, one of the most skippable powers, but gain: A proper build up Assassin's staff, which goes a long way towards making up for staff's lacking ST. The best staff form built in without having to pick a power. In all a very convincing set of advantages. With bio specifically, scrappers do get a taunt aura which is nice.

Sub 50s have strong xp incentives to run the wst. They will run it anyhow. Additional incentives for 50s helps keep interest in the content and more team engagement.

Given the choice, I'd pick the psi resist. You have a reasonable base in Rad/ so it has a meaningful impact against Psi heavy groups, while the regen will be barely noticeable. You'd probably get more mileage out of the FFback procs here, though I generally try to maximize both. With cross punch in its current slotting, I'd probably prefer a Fury of Glad proc instead.

Journey's build hits some good totals, but it's worth noting that end management will not be sustainable. This would be viable if you're okay relying on ageless and only working 50+ content. I'd recommend stepping back and not stressing too much about maximizing defense and resist. Fighting Pool is a tough sell for end sustainability. You may find more success with: Getting as close to Ranged Softcap as possible, but don't make big sacrifices to get there. 35+ is pretty good, and will be supplemented by debuffs. Epic resist armor. This gives you a meaty layer even without Tough. Embracing your diverse tools. Seekers have a hefty tohit-debuff, and make a great alternate opener when Flash Bang is down. This and/or Smoke Canister can make up the difference to softcaps. Tear Gas is one of the best aoe holds around. It's persistent, can be thrown from behind walls, and comes with a healthy damage debuff. Tranq isn't an easy skip on a controller. It's a pretty decent blast, shuts down problem bosses and even AVs in one shot for a breather when needed, and the sleep, even when interrupted, messes with mob AI such that their attack chains are very noticeably disrupted. You have a lot of great things you can splort out of that gun - use them aggressively!

It certainly will, but you have to keep spamming it, as the duration is very short, and you'll want enough static built up so it loops back to you if on a team. Easy looping if you're solo and just hitting your Phantasm.

Thanks for the confirm, @FupDup! Looks like a great power then. I've tweaked my build further, and my main dilemma comes down to my level 47 pick. Not sure what I want! What do you think between: Soul Transfer: Fun and sometimes useful, but not all that important of a tool. Takes a good purple set that serves build goals well. Havoc Punch: Can give me the same purple set bonuses, and adds some ST oomph to my chain. I fear that just Charged > Lancer > Refractor > sometimes Disintegrate is not enough. I can also throw a fun melee disorient proc for extra dizziness. A damage proc is probably better, but leaning on the theme : ) Cloak of Fear: Lose the great Purple bonuses. Gain a weak extra mez, extra chance to stack a stun proc in a passive toggle, lose any semblance of end sustainability. Piercing Beam: Can be procced out to proxy in reasonable ST damage, while leveraging some nice -Res. Pretty slow though, won't be getting my purple bonuses if I'm proccing it out to make it worth including in my rotation. Single Shot: Can actually move my Sent Ward ATO set here, and proc out Charged Shot for good damage. Gives me flexible filler. Charged shot could even have a FFback this way. Cutting Beam: I don't want it! Paralyzing Jolt: Lots of extra stun potential, but pretty slow and mediocre DPA. Other things? Maybe there's a great argument to switch epics. I really like what the bigger radius chain fences brings than other epic immobs though, and Lightning field serves my needs well. Below I've included the latest version, which reflects how I'd leverage Havoc Punch as an example. I'd rather go for secondary ranged defense focus than melee defense, as it's overall more effective. However, the sets possibilities don't really lend themselves to this if I'm pursuing a proc and recharge strategy. When Unleash is up, I'm at melee softcap which is pretty nice. Some neat things I like: 31% KD chance per 10/s on Lightning field. 20% flat KD chance per activation on chain fences. Overcharge knocks down, giving me time to hop in there and layer Oppressive Gloom stun on bosses before they can stand up. Note that procs are disabled on Lancer Shot right now so the buildup proc doesn't skew totals. Obscure Sustenance is also still disabled, so my end recovery looks much worse than it is. Sentinel (Beam Rifle - Dark Armor).mbd Chunk: Text:

Hi folks! Whenever I'm looking for new alt inspiration, Sentinel is a great go-to with its weird and interesting interpretations of classic sets. Refractor Beam and Obscure Sustenance are just the ticket! Enough unique flavor to inspire a build, despite having visited these powersets on other ATs many times. The concept here is to leverage moderate stun stacking with: Oppressive Gloom Overcharge Lancer Shot Proc in Lightning Field Alongside Knockdown in: Chain Fences proc Lightning Field proc -to supplement the strong baseline resists, and enable a build that doesn't really worry about softcaps. KD helps blunt the immediate blow so stuns can have a moment to hit. I do have Unleash potential as a fun steroid with good uptime in this high recharge build. My hope is that this is enough to smooth over any sticky situations I encounter that the soft controls and resists start to flounder in. With all my tools online at once, HP/sec is surprisingly strong! Approaching a mini-regen, even. A few questions: Obscure Sustenance has a tiered bonus structure. With my pretty high end consumption overall, do you think this is enough to sustain if I'm spamming it? I have Unleash for part-time backup on end as well. Note that OS is toggled off - obviously +1.18 isn't enough ; ) Has anyone used Performance shifter proc in Lightning Field? I'm wondering if it may be a worthwhile pop-in, but am not sure how it would proc in this kind of power. How is Refractor Beam with procs? I see others noting that it performs well, but my experience with other "chain" type powers (blaster scramble minds, Chain Induction, etc) is that the initial target has a good chance, but sub-targets are pretty bad. Even if just the primary, not so bad here though - works pretty well as a ST power procced out, with better target # potential than most Sentinel aoes. The idea here is to basically live in melee range, allowing OG and LF to do their thing as I stack chain fences to keep things in place. All the while, a moderate amount of things are flopping down, and the stuns are stacking up here and there as well. Overcharge has better uptime on Sents, so I can count on it as a primary control in addition to a damage power. I like that chain fences in EM has a much greater aoe radius than the Mu version, so I can one-shot root the spawn in place. This is also why I avoided any cones - I want stuff I can just pop off in melee range, though can always joust when necessary. I've never much enjoyed Cutting Beam or Piercing Beam on my other Beams - if you have an argument in favor, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Probably the easiest drop/slot siphon would be Soul Transfer. It is a fun power to have around, but could move for the right target if you have a great suggestion. I'm not terribly certain if the ATOs are actually serving me well here. I might be better off dropping these sets entirely and re-optimizing Disintegrate and Charged Shot for something else. I don't think bopping them over to Thunderstrikes for ranged def is worth it though - the recharge trade-off doesn't seem worth it. Build: Sentinel (Beam Rifle - Dark Armor).mbd Text: Chunk:

Reroll as Arse/TA and throw nets 😄 Really though it's true - this is a shortcoming. The set is still quite strong even so.

I think disruption arrow is an exception. This is what allows it to be on such a quick cool down, and not be unbalanced given higher than average values.