Young_Tutor

"Best" depends on what you want to do. COX really isn't about the "end-game" so much as the ride along the way. A couple of things to consider, though.

1.) Although the fastest way to make influence in COX is via market shenanigans, a level 50 playing the game regularly will earn more influence than lower level characters.

2.) A level 50 can participate in a greater range of content than a lower level character.

3.) Unlike WOW, some IO sets are just as good at level 30 as level 50 (because their power isn't affected by level, or because the set caps out at a lower level etc). It really isn't considered "twinking" but just part of how you design your characters if you have the influence. Nothing is BOP, and only a few of the most powerful IOs are reserved for level 50s. In fact, I'd go so far as to so that there are certain IOs that really *ought* to be slotted by level 30 unless you are powerleveling so rapidly that it makes no difference.

4.) Having several alts that you regularly play can give you a couple of a advantages, however. Some rewards are on timers, particuarly Signature Story Arc rewards and Tip/Morality missions. Additionally, the way the market works in COX rewards people who can use patience and leave things up for a week or so. That's easier to do with alts.

Taking all that into consideration, my advice would be to try maybe 4 or 5 different characters up to 22, and then push to 50 with the one you enjoy the most while keeping 2 or 3 other alts in regular rotation. Playing the different ATs gives you insight into good team play. I don't think you would be able to get a good sense of progression if you spread your attention out over 10-15 different characters, but focusing intently on just one character might lead to burnout.

As far as when a character can be "done", it depends on if you like badges or not. Personally I enjoy them, and am impressed when I can see another player has bothered to get a significant number of them. The other factor with "done" is that most folks don't bother to go beyond a certain point in enhancing their powers because it seems like overkill . . . for the same amount of expense/effort you could kit out 4-5 other characters as that last little bit for your main. But if you don't care about how marginal the returns are, there are all sorts of things you can do :-) You have 3 different builds per character, you could purple them all out!

This would be my advice if you feel like picking up IO sets in your level range. The difference between level 30s and level 50s isn't huge when it comes to sets. If you are playing the game normally, having the extra ooomph as you level up is nice. And (this might be getting more into the weeds than you need) lower level set IOs are good if you plan on exemping down frequently. Supply can be limited, but my advice would be to put in several low-ball bids on recipes 32-36 (adjust it upwards as you level) for doctored wounds and crushing impact. Maybe 100-300k a recipe. If you have extras, you can craft and sell them for 1 million plus. It just takes patience. Salvage in that level range can be expensive, the 41s+ are cheaper to craft when it comes to salvage.

Crushing Impact and Doctored Wounds both give a +5% recharge bonus if you have them 5-slotted. You can stack this bonus 5 times. +recharge is great on Regeneration scrappers. As others have mentioned, it isn't a bad idea to pick up a power or two just to drop a LOTG +recharge in; that's a pretty useful power right out the box. You have several click powers that are key to survival, and the more often they are up the stronger your defenses are.

Building for +defense is another strategy that will have good benefits, but it can be *very* expensive. One tactic is to focus on S/L def (since this gives protection against the most attacks). 45% def is considered optimal for normal content, but any amount of extra defense will add to your survivability. If you take CJ and Weave (maybe 2-3 slots in weave), you can stick a Steadfast Protection +3% Global Defense in Tough (it is quite expensive, but if you run some AE missions and roll tickets in the bronze 10-14 range you'll probably get one as well as other decent things to craft and sell) then you'll have something like +10-12% Def, which is similar to having a small luck on you at all times. One trick you could do to get some extra +def in would be to take 2 of your PBAOE powers and slot them with 3 eradication, 3 scrapper ATO set. That (with weave, CJ, and the Steadfast +3% Def in Tough) would give you ~17-18% def to s/l/e/n. You'd notice a pretty substantial boost to survivability at that point solo in normal content, and on teams you'd be well-prepared to benefit from any team +def buffs. (The closer you get to 45% the better, but even if you can get 15-20% it will still make a big difference).

Here are some ideas for you to consider:

1.) There are certain classic IOs that help a wide variety of characters and are seen in many, many builds. The Performance Shifter +End Proc, the Miracle +recovery unique, and the Numina's +regen/rec unique. If you are building for +regen, the Regenerative Tissue +regen is good too. Level does not affect these at all, so either get whatever's cheapest or if you are creating them yourself via A-merits, buy the lowest level possible.

1a.) The Force Feedback +recharge proc in Footstomp is a classic SS trick.

2.) Inv tankers typically have a few powers that take defense sets (invincibility, tough hide, weave, maybe combat jumping, maneuvers, or vengence). The LOTG +7.5% global recharge is very nice. The 2-slot bonus of +regen is nice for an Inv tanker, the 3 slot bonus might be overkill depending on if you have perma-dull pain or not. The global bonus acts like a set bonus, so when you are exemplared 3 levels below the IO level, the bonus disappears. Some people like using max level ones for the +def component of it, but personally I like using min level (25) because I value the +global recharge. If you plan on exemping down for TFs, might as well go with the 25s (you'll feel more super!).

3.) Many Inv tankers look to set bonuses to get them soft-capped (+45% def) to smashing and lethal with 1 foe in melee range. I like having high energy/negative defense, too. Kinetic Combat, Reactive Armor, Eradication, and Obliteration (also gives +recharge) are good sets for these bonuses, but they tend to be very expensive. The Steadfast Protection +3% def IO goes without saying. Mocking Beratement and Perfect Zinger also are worth considering, as they have multiple bonuses that are good for ya. I think getting s/l softcapped is a really, really big deal for INV tanks, and while it can be very expensive I think the effort is worth it.

4.) I would 5-slot Doctored Wounds in Dull Pain, using as many pieces that grant recharge as possible. Dull Pain is perma with 200% recharge so if you have 95% recharge slotted in Dull Pain, you'll need 105% bonuses from global recharge (or hasten) to get there. If you have a bunch of LOTG +7.5% recharge, hasten, the FFB+recharge proc, you'll be a long way towards something approaching perma-Dull Pain. Stir in a few more +recharge bonuses, and life is nice.

5.) The Tanker ATO set has a nice 4-slot bonus, and the +res buff might be nice. When you hit 50, you can Catalyze them and improve them even more.

6.) I like Thunderstrike as a ranged damage set. It doesn't have any +recharge, but its relatively cheap and has good enhancement value and set bonuses. Crushing Impact is another good all-around set that isn't special, but solid if you are saving up for some expensive sets.

7.) As far as power pools and epic power pools, you mentioned flight and leadership but I assume you also took fighting (if you didn't, I think you ought to, especially given your hero's military background!). The classic Superman analogue would take Energy Mastery APP for Laser Beam Eyes, but honestly I don't think that would bring very much to your build. You might want to get a little more original and switch up the classic a little bit! If you could bear to visit the dark side for a little bit (via tips and morality missions) villains can unlock extra patron power pools by doing missions at level 35. You could role play being mind-controlled, going undercover to foil a plot, etc.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Patron_Power_Pools

8.) These IOs are quite expensive, but the Panacea +hp/end proc is nice. The Gladiator's +3% def proc is very, very nice. Cytoskeleton HO is great for invincibility.

I'm assuming you are rolling bronze 10-14 for your tickets by your comment about steadfast +def. I find bronze 35-39 another good range. Silver rolls can be good too. The nice thing about bronze 35-39 is that there are quite a few decent common sets (Red Fortune, Crushing Impact, Thunderstrike, Doctored Wounds, Titanium Coating) in there that you can turn a small profit on and sell relatively fast. The other thing to consider about 35-39 bronze and silver is that if your character is not yet IOed, you'll get suitable recipes you can slot yourself to tide you over until you can get purples or whatever. You'll have a shot at reactives and oblits and kinetic combats, etc.

If your goal is to get *billions* of influence fast, I don't think farming alone will get you there. You'll need to figure out how to use the market to make that much money in a short timeframe.

Also, if you are adventuring on primal earth "tips" may drop. You can access them on your contacts bar, and choose how you respond to them. If you are a hero, you can choose a mission that will be "heroic" or if you want to try a darker version, you can choose the "vigilante" mission. You can do up to 5 tip missions in a 20-hour period. Once you have accumulated 10 points towards either Heroic or Vigilante alignment, a special tip that leads to a morality mission can drop. You can choose to do the morality mission and change your alignment or to reconfirm it.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Tip_Missions

If you do a series of tip missions and reconfirm your heroic alignment (or villain, if you are redside) then when you do SSAs you have the option to earn Alignment Merits. Alignment Merits can be used to buy rare recipes. For example an expensive recipe like the LOTG +7.5% recharge can be bought for 2 Alignment Merits. I find them a slow and steady way to improve my characters.

My guess would be that the 3 slot bonus from Miracle (+HP) is considered better than the 3 slot bonus for Panacea (Regen).

A good, generic melee set is Crushing Impact, it ranges from 30-50. Good enhancement value, not too rare or expensive, decent set bonuses. Many people prefer to use some of the other sets and try to stack defense. That can be pretty powerful, but it is kind of expensive.

Chiming in about exemplaring and levels of enhancements, level 41s give nearly the same value as level 50s even without enhancement boosters. They don't cost as much as level 50s to craft (though finding the recipes might be tough). You can use them exemplared down to level 38, which covers most of the content that is typically involved in Weekly Strike Forces.

Purple and PVP recipes/IOs are much more expensive than most regular IOs, but depending on what you are going for and how often you exemplar, they can be really nice. Most purple sets give +4% recovery, +15% accuracy, and +10% recharge (not all do, but those are really common bonuses). Compared to other non-purple sets that is good but not spectacular compared to the price . . . but if you exemplar a lot, you also have to factor in the bonuses sticking around. Many of the ATO sets are great too, and get even better if you catalyze them to make superior versions. They aren't as expensive as purples.

One not-so-obvious thing about exemplaring is how it affects enhancement value itself. As noted above, the enhancement value is the same down to level 32, then its reduced according to a formula. Individual enhancement values below 20% aren't affected until you his level 21. So if you have a level 25 dual IO that gives 20%/20%, or a level 43 triple IO that gives 19.9%/19.9%/19.9% the enhancement value won't get scaled down until level 21. That's not so shabby. Sometimes the set bonuses aren't as important as the enhancement value of the power itself.

A couple of power suggestions:

1.) Corrupters get decent value out of Manuevers. You clearly have powers picked to be LOTG set mules.

2.) EMP with high recharge and some extra recovery is a thing of beauty. Basilisk's Gaze gives +1.25% Ranged and 7.5% recharge (that is different from the LOTG bonus for the rule of 5). It makes me sad to see you have a /rad build with a hold slotted and it not be EMP.

3.) I'd advise you to think about exemplaring before you push out set defining powers like RI, EF, or LR. If you never plan on exemping down for TFs, and only plan to solo, then maybe it isn't a big deal. But if you want to team up for lower level content, you are leaving some of your secondary's most powerful tools out. People who love Radiation Emission would be sad to see that you didn't have those powers available. I would try to get them in by level 24, so they'd be available on Synapse's TF. I'd push back Dehydrate (you have it slotted for heals, and do you really need extra heals beyond RA?) and Boxing etc to move those up. Unless you felt like you'd be routinely soloing at lower levels, and couldn't make up the difference by just buying small purples like I do when I farm SSA 1.

Okay, slotting reflections:

1.) Seriously, what's up with slotting Dehydrate for heals? I get it, it heals. But you *have* another heal. And you plan on being softcapped to range. Why not slot Decimation (more recharge) or Apocalypse (even more recharge) or throw in another Thunderstrike set so you don't have to 6-slot Health for the 3.75 bonus?

2.) Whirlpool. Yes, it debuffs defense, but it also does high damage. What set bonuses are you going for that wouldn't be better suited by a Posi Blast or a Ragnarok?

3.) Its pricey, but you could swap out Doctored Wounds for Panacea and get a tad more +recharge.

In general I agree with folks that a Fire/Rad ought to be focused on debuffing primarily. Radiant Aura isn't the most powerful heal in the game and you need to run in and out to use it effectively. That said, if you are the *only* support on the team, use what you have to support the team. Yes, ranged damage is your primary but if there are not other characters with support sets along for the ride my guess is you already have damage covered. If you don't manage to do this, have you failed? Heck no, RA is a small PBOAE heal, it can fill in some gaps but Rad's main focus is debuffs.

I agree with other folks about you not being "responsible" for keeping everyone's health bar full. When I play my rad/dark defender and am the *only* support character on a team, I remind others that I only have a pbaoe heal and suggest that they keep a free spot in their inspiration tray, combine inspirations, and have a few greens handy if they get in trouble. At the same time, I *do* try to save folks bacon. Why? Because I *can*.

You may want to check your slotting and look at your build from the standpoint of exemplaring. A lot of builds that are only focused on level 50 aren't that great when exemplared down. Some very useful IOs like the Performance Shifter proc, or the Miracle and Numina's uniques, aren't affected by level. Yes, they are expensive, but they really help and Hero Merits work well for them. You might be missing some useful accolades that give +endurance also.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Hero_Accolade_Powers

I used to have my Radiant Aura frankenslotted to get a ton of Heal, Recharge, *and* End Reduction in 5 slots. When exemplared below 32, your enhancement values are reduced on a sliding scale . . . but bonuses below 20% are not affected by this till you are below level 21. So I had a mess of level 43 or lower triples and level 25 duals, that way I enjoyed full enhancement value.

A couple of general things to consider.

1.) This is more a general thing for exemping, but if you use level 41 set IOs except for Purples, PVPs, or other IOs that aren't affected by the -3 exemping rule, you'll not give up a ton of enhancement value and will keep your bonuses till level 38. This helps an end-game build go a little bit further. For some folks it would be a waste of time, for others it could add quite a bit of variety in the build. If your main build worked fine down to level 38, then you could set up your exemplar build with the idea that it would be your go-to for level 35 and below.

2.) You can use temporary powers to cheat at little bit. For example, unless you really like Superspeed, you can just use a jetpack to get around. Pick one up for 10k influence in Firebase Zulu. Craft up a kinetic dampener or recovery serum, and use them! Pick up some shivans in Bloody Bay, or some nukes from Warburg.

3.) Use inspirations! If you have a full inspiration tray, you are missing out on resources. Always try to keep at least one empty slot, combine or eat candy to make this so. They fall pretty frequently and a level 50 has a way bigger tray than other folks who are exemped down.

4.) Try to brainstorm and think a bit about the situations you see your exemped build in. Will you be running TFs? Solo flashbacks? If solo, will you have mission difficulty turned way up, or turned way down? If primarily in groups, like for TFs, what role do you see yourself playing? What are your strengths? What unique things does your BS/SD bring to a team?

Now some specific things:

1.) While exemped down you won't have access to any powers more than 5 levels above your exemped level. That means at level 35 you won't have your level 41+ powers, and at level 25 you won't have your 32+ powers. You'll still have access to set bonuses that are within 3 levels of your exemped level though, even if the power is greyed out. This means you can pick and slot your higher level powers purely for set bonuses and not worry about whether the power is useful or enhanced properly. So for example, you could 4 slot both Night Fall and Tenebrous Tentacles with Cloud Senses to get +2.25% endurance and +6.25% recharge (for each set). If you used level 18s, they would work all the way down to Positron TF!

2.) Why no Miracle +recovery? If you have recovery problems while exemped pick up one of those via a SSA for hero merits.

3.) Some of the sets you use don't go below 30. It looked like you were trying to get softcapped melee and ranged, with a bit of recharge here and there. At the risk of changing your power picks, it seems like Parry would add a ton of melee defense and free up some other choices. At the risk of mentioning something that's really expensive, the Gladiator's +def proc would go a fair amount getting you some defense.

4.) Alternatively, you could settle for a lower benchmark of +melee and +ranged . . . perhaps 32.5%, so that a single small purple would softcap you.

5.) One thing to consider is the way enhancement value scales when you are exemped. Below level 32, your IOs are going give less enhancement value (93% of what they normally give at level 30, 73% at level 25, 58% at level 21). This may or may not be significant to your build. One way around this is to frankenslot . . . any enhancement value 20% or less is not affected until level 21. So if you ignored set bonuses and just used triples (at level 43) and quads (at level 50) as mini-HOs, you could essentially 9-slot a hardcore power. Disembowel might be a good power for this strategy, as you'd have it down to level 21.

Not saying it is a Fire/Storm's *job* to heal, but if no one else on the team has a heal and heals are needed then it is what it is. You either have a heal and try to do your best, or you don't have a heal and no one on the team has a heal.

Probably a more common scenario would be this: there's someone else on the team with a heal handling most of the HP issues. In that scenario, O2 boost allows you to do spot healing to fill in gaps, or help out folks with mezzes. If you are spamming O2 boost, there's a serious problem with them team. It is a good tool to have in your toolbox. I think it is a little better than afterburner, which in a SO build basically only helps you travel faster between missions . . . I can't imagine it being the difference between success or failure on a team.

Since you don't plan on teaming much, you won't have a ton of slots in O2 Boost. I'd personally go with a recharge, precisely because you don't plan on using it a lot (but when you do need it, you want it to be ready). Hollows makes a good point that it is an endurance hog. I know you don't want an IO build, but if you had 2 slots in O2 Boost and put in (for example) a level 25 Harmonized Healing Heal/End/Rech and a Triage Heal/End/Rech you'd get essentially the same enhancement value as a Heal, End Reduction, and Recharge +0 SO (3 SOs worth of value in 2 slots). This technique is called "frankenslotting", ignoring set bonuses and just using set IOs to eek out extra enhancement value.

The heal isn't that big, and if you don't plan on teaming a lot you don't need that many slots. I'd put a recharge in it, and maybe move a slot or two that you get in your 40s to add a heal or another recharge.

If I were you I'd look to swap out combat jumping, hover, or afterburner and put O2 Boost (the heal) in its place. Kick is a prerequisite for Tough and Weave.

Not every Corruptor secondary has a heal. Storm does. You didn't take it. That's a matter of personal preference, and if you don't want a heal by all means skip it. I would recommend you take it if you plan on teaming at all.

Emjack,

I would be happy to give you some advice about leveling a defender (or any other AT). I can PM you if you wish. City of Heroes can be complicated, and I'm not a Mid's expert myself. In my opinion, a Mid's build is not necessary to get a good build in game. It can help, but it isn't a requirement for an SO build.

With ED, you generally don't want to put more than 3 SOs worth of enhancements in a power. For most attacks, 1 acc, 3 dam, and your preference of rech or end reduction as needed. Defensive toggles some will require an end reduction SO to be effective, some don't offer a ton of bonuses so putting slots in there is kind of a waste (for example, Combat Jumping doesn't take a huge amount of endurance and doesn't give a lot of defense).

I think most people would place Dark Miasma or Rad Emission pretty high on the list of defender primaries/corruptor secondaries as far as being fun and useful both solo and groups. Storm is a bit more tricky to play well. What do you see yourself doing as a defender/corruptor?

To be honest, if you are looking for an SO leveling build, its not terribly hard to come up with something useful. I don't have Mid's, but here's roughly what I'd take:

Level 1:
Twilight Grasp
Dark Blast (no choice)

Level 2
Gloom (I like a usable attack chain at lower levels)

Level 4
Travel Power

Level 6
Tar Patch

Level 8
Darkest Night

Level 10
Howling Twilight

Level 12
Fearsome Stare

Level 14
Shadows Fall

Level 16
Tenebrous Tentacles

Level 18
Free Pick (maybe maneuvers for team buffs?)

Level 20
Night Fall

Level 22-28 Free Picks

Level 32
Dark Servant

I'd try to get at least 4 slots into my attacks (1acc/3dam). Twilight Grasp needs some acc and some rech. Howling Twilight and Tar Patch I'd go with 3 recharge and call it a day. Fearsome Stare you want up as much as possible. Make sure you have a couple of end reducers in Shadows Fall (I'd prioritize slotting it for +def over +res), and make sure you slot stamina if you intend to run a bunch of toggles. Hasten would help. When fighting AVs, Twilight Grasp and Howling Twilight do a significant amount of -regeneration, so be sure to use them.

If you can use IOs, there are some that will help you out such that levels make no difference. You don't need to wait till level 50 to slot the Performance Shifter +end, or the Miracle +recovery or Numina's recovery/regeneration. The Cloud Senses +negative damage proc in Dark Servant is pretty cool. I personally like to do tip missions and reaffirm my status in a morality mission, then I can earn Alignment Merits via Signature Story Arcs. And of course, frankenslotting will allow you to get a bit more oomph out of your slots if you don't mind bargain bin diving.

The powers I listed are (IMO) the must-haves for D/D. You could use your free picks to take it in a number of directions. Maneuvers would stack team +def, Tactics gives +to-hit (they have proposed making changes to snipes in i24 such that +to-hit will affect their activation, stay tuned for actual details), Assault boosts damage, Vengence is another spot to drop at LOTG+7.5% recharge. The Fighting pool would let you get Tough and Weave, boosting your personal survivability. Dark Pit can be useful soft control; Life Drain is a pretty decent single target attack if you want another one.

Everyone has their own "get rich" tips, but since you are a new player here are some things that work for me.

1.) If you are relatively low on cash, 10-14 bronze ticket rolls or 35-39 bronze rolls give you the best odds of getting useful recipes. The downside is that you have to sort through many relatively useless recipes. If you are new to the game, it might not be immediately obvious what is valuable and what is not. You can put the recipe up in the market and check its price (if there are a ton for sale and no bids, its probably worthless). Unless you have the /ah veteran reward that lets you check the auction house from anywhere, this can be time consuming.

2.) 10-14 and 35-39 silver recipes are a decent compromise. Its less efficient from a ticket standpoint, but possibly more efficient from a time standpoint. Salvage will be more expensive, so you might want to build up a bit more of a nest egg.

3.) I suggest doing villain tips and do a villain morality mission. This will "reconfirm" your alignment as a villain and allow you to earn Villain Merits from Signature Story Arcs. You can earn one villain merit each week via SSAs, and the first time you do an episode of an SSA you can get a merit that does not count towards your one per week. Currently there are 8 episodes live. You can use villain merits to purchase expensive recipes (LOTG +Recharge costs 2 VMs). They are a decent break from farming (just make sure you turn down the mission difficulty slider!).

I'd spend a little time on the Market and Inventions forum, there are a number of good basic guides there. Rule of thumb, there are 4 main types of IO you can craft, common (white), uncommon (yellow), rare (orange), and purple/pvp (purple/orange). Generally speaking the rarerer, the more expensive. As others have said, you need to either be VIP or have a certain amount of tokens to use IOs. Additionally, there are some typical ways to earn IO recipes in game that require either VIP status or a certain amount of tokens (earning AE tickets, reward merits, or alignment merits). As a rule the most valuable commodity on the market is patience. Some folks pay a premium to have something *NOW* but if you can wait a day or two, it is available at a great price.

Buying pre-crafted IOs on the market can be expensive. Most of the time it is cheaper to craft them yourself. If you are setting up for crafting, if you have the veteran reward that lets you use the auction house by typing /ah you are in luck. Otherwise blueside I'd recommend setting up shop in Steel Canyon because the University and the Auction House are nearby.

Here's a fairly cheap way to upgrade your toon.

1.) Some powers where you only have one type of enhancement, you might be able to go ahead and replace them with generic IOs. You might be able to get them cheaper than crafting them yourself. The difference won't be much, and it might be a good idea to learn to craft some easy stuff. If you buy pre-crafted ones, remember that if you don't leave a bid up for 24 hours, you didn't really try to buy it!

2.) There are some single IOs that are near-universally regarded as useful for nearly every build. They are quite expensive to buy on the market and I usually prefer to get the recipes via alignment merits, which can be earned via tip missions/morality mission or by doing a Signature Story Arc. You can also use regular merits to get those recipes. 3 in particular will help you with your endurance concerns. 2 heal sets have unique IOs (you can only slot one of each in your build) that affect recovery, Numina's Convalescence and Miracle. I usually slot both of those IOs in Health (ie add one slot beyond base). Performance Shifter is an Endurance Modification set, it has a IO that gives a chance for +10 endurance every so often. I usually have 2 level 50 endurance mod IOs and the Performance Shifter +10 in Stamina (3 slots). There are other useful single IOs, but you can discover those on your own.

3.) Many folks have mentioned the Thunderstrike set, and I want to recommend it as well. This is a point of personal preference, but when it comes to set IOs, I am very open to using anything level 41+ rather than sticking only to level 50s. The recipes are usually cheaper to buy, and the crafting costs are less. If you are on a budget, you'll save money by getting whatever is available. I would try to budget about 100-200k a recipe for Thunderstrikes (plus crafting and salvage costs). If you exemplar a lot, you might want to go with level 41s in sets so that you kept your bonuses down to level 38.

Thunderstrike gives you great enhancement value from the IOs. The set bonuses are very useful too . . . 6 slots will get you some +recovery, +accuracy, +ranged/negative/energy defense, and a bit of +movement speed. Thunderstrikes can go in ranged attack powers. For melee powers I'd suggest Crushing Impact, and for PBAOE I'd suggest Multi-strike. You can choose how many of each set you want to put into a power, you can mix and match sets, and you can ignore set bonuses and just use the IOs to enhance the power.

I'd replace Trap of the Hunter with Thunderstrike (or something else) in Crush.

I'd put the leaping or running stealth proc in sprint and put maybe a Kismet +to-hit or LOTG recharge in Hover.

I'd got with LOTG over GOTA in your defense powers.

The Controller ATO set doesn't have damage; I don't think I'd put it in Singy. I'd try to get at least one peroxisome HO (dam/mez) in there.

Overall I like your build, as other have said if/when you move to IOs there are some useful things you can do to eek a bit more oomph out of it at a reasonable price. If you were going to burn a respec, at that level I don't know if I'd have 3 slots in Health or 4 in Rad Infection. Ultimately I don't think its a big deal since as you level you get new slots anyway.

If you have access to all the goodies and toys, some of the shiny shiny stuff can be very expensive. I'd second Madadh's advice that frankenslotting (read the market forums) and picking a few choice IOs (I'd add the Kismet +to-hit and the LOTG +recharge to the list, as well as a karma -KB and maybe a run/leaping + stealth).

Many of the expensive IOs can be acquired with patience and judicious use of merits, hero merits, AE tickets, etc. But that's a whole 'nother ballgame.

One cheap way to split the difference between level 50 build and exemplar builds is to use level 41 IOs instead of level 50s. The difference in enhancement value is minimal, and you'll keep your set bonuses on many of the common weekly task forces. Or use level 30-32s and take advantage of enhancement boosters. Purple, PVP, and ATOs also are nice for exemplaring (though they aren't particularly cheap).

Pretty good rework!

You could probably get by with dropping fire defense down a little bit to where 2 small purples or one medium purple would get you softcapped, giving you a bit more wiggle room for other goals. Getting the PVP proc IOs at a level where you could slot them by 33 might be ambitious or extremely expensive. Maybe switch a Def/End into Weave. One thing to keep in mind is that you aren't actually running Tough against foes that do fire damage. If you discounted the idea that you'd get the Gladiator Armor proc, you could just move the Steadfast Proc into Tough and have an extra slot to move into weave or stamina.

Don't neglect accolade powers. Atlas Medallion and Portal Jockey will give you a combined +10% endurance, which is nothing to sneeze at. Atlas for a hero isn't tough, Portal Jockey will require the help of higher level heros for the AVs. Freedom Phalanx gives +10% HP.

Consume will reliably fill your endurance bar if you are surrounded by foes (which, if you are farming, you will be). If you could free up a slot or two, extra end reduction in Blazing Aura would help a lot as would some end reduction in weave and an extra end mod in Stamina. Enhancement boosters could help you squeeze out a little more value if you felt like using them.

The key of course is walking into the mission with a full inspiration tray of what you want, and munching on inspirations non-stop as you go, combining them as needed to get what you want.

For what you want, you need to focus on a couple of things. One is fire resist, which you can do by moving a couple of slots around. Every other resist is kind of irrelevant. The second is fire defense. Aegis 3-slotted in your shields will hook you up. The third is sustainable endurance. 4th would be recharge boosts. Finally you need AOE damage attacks (but not a ton, one or two solid ones from your primary would be fine).

S/L defense and -KB aren't really important for this type of build. Spring Attack will knockback foes out of burn and blazing aura. The regeneration proc in Healing Flames is a waste, either put a recharge in the default slot or 5-slot it with doctored wounds. Similarly, just put a recharge in consume, or slot it out with Mocking Beratement for bonuses to both fire defense and recharge (you could even put it in single target attacks). You can get by with just the Numina and Miracle unique in Heal, and IMO you'd get more bang for your buck if you moved a slot or two out of Stamina. I'd pick up Weave (Tough really isn't important for a Fire Brute on a Fire Map). You *need* more slots in Burn.

You can combine inspirations as they drop to keep your fire defense at the softcap (45%). I like to monitor my recharge, fire def, and damage bonus. Eat a couple of purples at all times, and transform the rest into reds (eating blues and greens as needed to supplement consume and healing flames). An attack chain IMO isn't as important as in other builds because blazing aura does a lot of the heavy lifting and you *need* a bit of downtime between attacks to keep inspirations combined so you have lots of buffs up at all times (unless you are really handy with macros).