Arbegla

Eh, I'm pretty sure as far as the devs are concerned, you don't have to buy it. Think of the Rikti situation though, see, we knew about them before they became all psyho and we even were going to progress into a treaty (or atlest trade agreement) with them, but then Nemesis fired first, and started the whole rikti war (both 1 and 2 actually, that *******) So it very easily could have been Primal Earth that fired first, as a means to defend ourselves from another dimensional attack..

Not entirely true. It made it clear that Praetoria knew of Primal Earth before Portal Corps knew of Praetoria, but that doesn't mean that a different area of govenment (say, the kind folks Maelstorm was working for) didn't know about Praetoria before we (the hero, and Portal Corps) knew about Praetoria

Domination adds KB protection, just FYI So that limits your need to have to make up the KB protection.

because purples work at all levels, and already drop at non level 50 mobs (47 minions, 46 LTs, 45 bosses, 44 EB/AV ALL drop purples)

Shards are a salvage piece used to craft a component that only works down to level 45. (purples work at all levels) So, you've already gotten your wish, as level 50 salvage drops at level 35+ mobs and that salvage is used to craft purples.

I can understand the Mustang vs Lamborghini analogy, and it fits pretty well here, as both builds will do about the same.

My main point is that you seem to be sacrificing a lot of your debuff values to maintain your softcap, when you can reach close to the cap (say in the ballpark of 30-35%, and have much higher debuff vaules which is what i feel /traps is all about)

Softcapping a build is great, but keep in mind that /traps has no DDR, so once you get debuffed yourself, you have a really limited backup plan.

I'm not saying 15 billion or bust, i'm just saying a well rounded build (say, decent defence, decent debuff, decent buff) would top out a pure defense capped build any day.

While you can solo without your pets, it'll be at a very slow pace especially with defense debuffs detering your ability to set up trip mines. Looking at the bigger picture, a softcapped mastermind with below soft cap pets won't last as long as a below soft capped mastermind and softcapped pets, especially when you consider that pets are below the materminds level and have much lower hit points.

While we both can run at 4/8, the speed at which we run them at would be much different, due to the debuff values affecting +4 mobs much more.

I've left this thread mostly alone, due in part to forgetting it even existed, but to not devolve into a 'Why blasters' thread, i'm just going to point out that a blaster has a higher damage mod then a corr, and the only way for a corr to match the blaster is for scourge to kick in, which really only affects the last 10% of the mobs hitpoints. (scourge can proc anywhere from 50 - 0%, but due to its scaling nature, its most reliable at 10-0%)

From 100 - 0% Blasters are doing 1.125 damage scale.

From 100 - 50% are doing .75 damage scale.

from 50 - 10% corruptors damage scale steadily increases from .75 to 1.5, and at 10% - 0% the corruptors damage scale maintains 1.5.

Now, this really only matters on AVs, as even EBs die to fast for corruptors to really feel an impact from scourge, and before anyone says 'well you have debuffs' keep in mind that on a team, that blaster, with the higher damage scale, has those debuffs to.

That's what i was meaning when i said there is a set up time on debuff/buff characters. Right out of the box blasters are doing the highest ranged damage, and the third highest melee damage *dominators and scrappers are higher, with dwarfs (both white and dark) being on par with blasters melee attacks* where as the debuff/buff sets have to either damage cap themselves (but somehow not damage cap the blaster) or put debuffs on targets the blaster hasn't already mowed down.

So while the argument that judgement steps on blasters toe as other ATs can deal that kind of damage from it, and on 8 man team, especially pure buff/debuff, those judgement powers can be rotated to make the blaster obsolete, in any given team those powers make any given damage AT obsolete, especially if that full team (be it 8, or 48) has t4 judgement boosts which extend past the aggro cap.

I don't feel like judgement is going to negatively impact my blasters playstyle, or prevent me from playing my blasters any less, and if my blaster isn't welcome on teams because other characters (non blasters) are more welcome once they have judgement powers unlocked, then that wasn't a team i wanted to be on anyways. I firmly believe in teaming with 'players' not 'characters' and i can zero problem running TFs with pure damage, or no tanks, etc. I don't see that changing one bit once i20 hits live.

Read what you just quoted...

Which is the cardiac boost

OR, you can LRM one group on a team (think the crystals on the ITF) just before you tank/brute rushes in, then when they herd everything together (taunt auras do that) you full auto the group.

Thats kinda like what i plan on doing to my DP/dev/munitions, she'll have so many different options available to her to lay waste to a group that something will be up that can 1-2 shot things (hail of bullets, trip mine, the cone and AoE DP attacks, LRM, caltrops, etc)

I'm pretty sure we've already rehashed the pros and cons of our two different builds, and it boiled down to difference of play style.

Basically, all my powers recharge faster then yours, i have more recovery then you, both on actual recovery, and on EPS after toggles (even factoring in your t4 cardiac boost) and i have about 55 more hp then you (even after accolades) What your build has over mine is a natural defense cap, but mine debuffs much better then yours (especially with the higher recharge, as all of /traps powers stack on themselves, due to them being different entities)

Take for example your acid mortar. Yours, with hasten, recharges in 33.45 seconds, enough to double stack for a total of (31.62*2=62.24% -def) and 40% -resistance.

Mine with hasten, recharges in 24.78 seconds, enough to triple stack (acid mortar lasts for 60 seconds, so you need under 30 seconds to triple stack) and mine has the -res proc which fires off constantly in the acid mortar for a total of (29.39*3=88.17% -def, and 80% -res counting the proc, which is easily perma. -60% without)

Triage beacon is in about the same boat, yours recharges in 65.29 seconds, and gives 301.66% regen, mine recharges in 55.67 seconds, and gives 331.71% regen. Mine being double stacked for about 10 seconds longer then yours, which can really help out for bodyguard mode.

Your seeker drones recharge in 35.76 seconds, which is barely perma as the duration is 40 seconds, and they do 5% -tohit each, where mine recharges in 23.86 seconds, double stacking for about 15 seconds (due to cast time) doing -7.597% -tohit each. Due to the ability to double stack them, I can effectively softcap myself using my seeker drones.

Heck, your hasten recharges in 176.54 secs, while mine recharges in 135.18 seconds.

There is more to /traps then trip mine and triage beacon. Acid mortar allows you to debuff more effectively then a /rad both in -def and in -resistance, and seeker drones allows you to almost match them in -tohit values as well. (for reference, my /rad controller can debuff def to a maximum of 33.25%, tohit to a max of 42.36%, and resistance to a max of 22.5% (42.5% with a -res proc, which i have) So already my /traps is doing almost triple the -def values (yours is about double) about 75% the -tohit values (-30.388% after 4 seeker drones, where yours is -10% so you have about 25% the -tohit values) and about double the -resistance values (yours is about on par with what a /rad with a -res proc can bring)

Softcap is great and wonderful and all, especially on a tankermind, but if your neglecting your debuffs to get it then what are you really bringing to the table? The ability to toe bomb trip mines? There's a blaster/corr/scrapper/brute on the team, and they can kill much faster then your trip mine. You can stealth? Well, so can that stalker or just about anyone with a stealth IO and SS.

While my build doesn't quite hit the softcap yours does as my protector bots provide 12.26% def to everything, putting me at about 42.5% def to lethal/smash/energ/neg, i am softcapping my pets, where as you pets aren't softcapped at all do to only getting 15% def from the protector bots, 4.047% from maneuvers, and 15.05% from FFG, putting them at 34.047 def, where mine have 24.52% def from the protectors, 3.784% from maneuvers, 15.42% from FFG, and 5% from the +def aura, for a total of 48.724% def so i feel the higher debuff values, both in sheer numbers, and in ability to double and even triple stack and soft capped pets far out weigh your slightly higher def values (with your protector bots, and -tohit values your at 64.4% def (effectively) where I'm at 72.948% def, (effectively). I say effectively, because the -tohit values can be resisted, and they have to hit, but with all the -def going around, plus tactics (yours is only .66% better, due to the t4 spiritual boost i have giving me additional +tohit) and actually slotting for accuracy its a pretty safe assumption they will hit and deal their debuff values.

So while i do admit to just throwing inf at my build for the sake of throwing inf at it, I've thought out ever single inf I've spent, and achieved multiple goals, instead of being a 1 trick pony.

Base values for seeker drones is 90 seconds, the debuff only lasts for 40 seconds (the pets themselves last for 120, so i can see where you can get confused on that) Poison trap recharges at base for 90 seconds, the debuff only lasts 30 seconds. The device lasts for 260s so again, i can see the confusion. Caltrops is perma right out of the box, but nothing else is that /traps offers. You need quite a bit of recharge to get the debuffs values perma.

Actually it is, I've gained 3 to 4 levels PER WST run on my alts, due to the bonus XP at the end, and having rested XP from working on my level 50s. While you don't get shards, you still get a notice, which you can convert down into shards (say you only want the t3, and you've ran 6 WST, well, you convert the other 5 notices down to shards)