Dr_Kit

With my Fire/Fire I took a very different route that's worked REALLY well for me. I slotted heavily for recharge and didn't worry about Def. I didn't take tough and weave either. With i19 i added the stealth set mainly to squeeze in a few LoTG global recharges. I've just now got his alpha slot and I'm going to go for damage.
Because I'm a bit squishy I went with Fire Mastery and Rise of the Phoenix (RoTF) so when I do die I pop right back up, stun everyone, and just go right on killing. According to Hero Stats on 8 person teams I tend to make 6 out of every 8 kills. I'm aggressive (maybe even a bit reckless) and a pure killing machine. I farm +0 X8 maps alone all the time with great results.
I should mention that this toon has been around since about i4 and has had all the accolades for years now. I'm also heavily purpled. So I can't say that the killing machine style I use works from levels 1 - 49. Probably not as I do rely on RoTF heavily (but it's rare that I die and it isn't recharged) and I don't think you can get that before 47. Also, he was good before IOs, but not nearly the terror he is now. I can only imagine what the alpha slot will do...
Anyway, you might think about this alternative. I do die a lot more than a blaster who's maxed DEF, but I kill a LOT more and, most importantly, I have tremendous fun dishing out insane amounts of damage. I'm a min/maxer and to me this toon is maximized for FUN.

Yeah, I get it. A 5% addition to defense will prevent the same amount of damage no matter what your initial defense was (barring reaching the soft cap).
Looked at in percentage terms going from 50 DPS to 45 DPS is a 10% decrease while going from 10 DPS to 5 DPS is a 50% decrease even though the same amount of damage is prevented some people think it's more just because it's a higher percentage.
But you also say right in the original post that " increasing defence gives exponential rises to survivability. This is not a point of contention" so you obviously see why people say defense is worth more from 40% to 45% than from 0% to 5%.
As for the point about Def vs. Regeneration, I think your spreadsheet makes it crystal clear that the calculation isn't dependent on initial Def.
I think you've won the case your were trying to prove (that Def vs. regen isn't dependent on initial DEF). Given that you openly admit that increasing defense provides exponential survivability benefits I'm not sure what's left to debate...

I have a KM/FA brute up to 16 and he's been quite squishy. My expectation was that Power Siphon and Fury would complement each other, but PS isn't up enough yet for it to have anywhere near the impact fury does.
We'll see how he levels but as of now I'm expecting that he wont be a force majeure until fully IOed at 50. At that point I expect he'll be a pretty solid killing machine, but probably not up to some of the major TFs.
Unless you are in a position where being squishy is fine (like major farming or always team with an FF defender) I'd go with a different secondary.

thank you, thank you, thank you! Maybe this will cut down some on the never ending stream of Proc questions in the forums.

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What's great is that people have been saying we're ddddoooommmeeedd since launch, and yet surprisingly, here we are.

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When I buy a non MMO game, I play it for a week or two. Most MMO games I buy I play once or twice and discard. A few I've played for several months. But CoH I've been playing since it launched and don't plan to stop.


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You summed up my feelings exactly.

I don't like ED much either, but I understand why the Devs keep tweaking things for balance. Then again, I stopped playing both my regen scrapper and my fire tanker well before they were nerfed because they were so overpowered it wasn't fun.