Hopeling

But we CAN'T do that. That was the point of the post, after all: they spawn as EBs, even if we have AVs enabled. If you don't want to fight AVs, great, don't, that's what the setting is for.

Er... that use of Enzymes ISN'T an exploit. It's debuff enzymes in a debuff power, exactly as they're supposed to be used.

I agree with the rest of your post, though.

But it was. Some builds skipped AS completely; some slotted it in a way totally incompatible with its new use. Many Grav builds skipped powers that have been drastically revamped and are now worth using. These were totally valid build choices (even if you, personally, would not make them) which have changed dramatically in light of the changes. Plus, Incarnate powers are now obtainable by people who didn't want to do trials, and those can totally transform a build. ATOs can require significant build alteration. Oh, and KM got gutted in PvP, so the people who did that (as few as they may be) probably want to respec, too.
Sure, not EVERY build needs a respec. Not every build needed to grab a travel power at level 4, or take a travel t5, but we got a freebie for that anyway.

I mean, hey, Zwill has spoken, the odds of getting a freespec now are approximately zip. But I don't at all think it's consistent with what the threshold has been in the past. I don't know that it's some nefarious plot to sell more respecs, or if this is even indicative of a long-term policy change, but it doesn't seem to match past behavior.

That 3 times a minute means how many times (on average) it will actually fire, not just get a chance to fire. In a power like Stamina (which rolls for the proc every 10 seconds), this means it has a 50% chance to fire on every tick. This makes it more than twice as strong (!!!!) as the crafted version.

It should still be fixed IMO (and Synapse is apparently looking into it), but in the opposite direction from what you were thinking.

That is correct. The proc chance is calculated from base recharge, so you can get much more benefit from the proc with recharge slotting and bonuses. The 100% proc chance threshold 15 seconds for the orange version, 12 seconds for the purple version. A thread with some testing on the beta forums suggests it's actually based on (recharge+cast), not just recharge, but the threshold should be the same.
The proc rate isn't "100% or nothing". BIB will have a very high proc rate, although not quite 100%, with the orange version of the proc, which is still quite good. If/when you can catalyze it, that will become a full 100%.

That's why I suggested Agility, since it gives the same defense bonus as Nerve. It would be a straight swap: some acc and hold duration (that you will never need at all) versus some recharge and endmod (that you will need rarely). Musculature is worth considering too, especially for a scrapper, but Agility would just be a straight trade-up, instead of a trade-off.
It's actually much easier than that. Enemy rank does not affect their relative level for combat modifiers (including hit chance), only the color they con at. So if you have no level shifts, your base chance to hit a level 54 enemy is 39%, whether they're a minion, boss, or AV. You really will basically never fight an enemy worse than +4, since you'll probably have level shifts yourself by the time you're facing enemies with level shifts. I loaded up your build in Mids, set the base tohit to 39%, and even turned off Focused Accuracy and Follow Up, and all your attacks are still well above the 95% hit cap. Well, except Energy Torrent. That's at a mere 94%.
That leaves 2 situations where it will matter: defense buffs, and tohit debuffs. You've got Focused Accuracy, which provides high enough resistance to debuffs that they're a non-issue. And defense buffs tend to only be a problem when they're very large (Paragon Protector t9s, for example), in which case you need large tohit bonuses to make much difference, not acc bonuses.

Edit: I mean, this is all just fine-tuning, your build looks pretty solid already. But hey, if you want the perfect build, let's see if we can't make it perfect-er

Kosmos had a theory that proc rate is being calculated based on (recharge + cast), instead of just recharge. I don't know if that addresses any part of what seems off to you, but it's worth mentioning.

In-game, the power info says it gives about +370 hp total, 215 of which lasts only ten seconds (or less, below t4). I believe that's boosted by Spiritual/Vigor's healing bonus, but it's still not particularly great.

I'm not sure that's even particularly hypocritical, if he really does like UG, it's merely inconsistent (and since when are we human beings logical and consistent in our preferences?). And I'm not sure it's really that inconsistent, either, since UG is an enjoy-it-once-in-a-while thing, while DiB is an play-it-several-times-in-a-row-on-every-new-character thing.

If you can cap to every positional vs cap to every type (usually with the exception of psi), yes. Every positional vs every type including psi is kind of a mixed bag, since some attacks are positional but not typed (toxic, web nades, that stuff) and some are typed but not positional (certain psi powers).

If you can only cap one defense (S/L or Ranged), it will depend on build, playstyle, and situation. As Hextor said, Ranged will do very well until/unless something gets into melee with you (and hoverblasting doesn't always work in hallways/caves), at which point it does squat, but S/L would keep working.

The Black Dog gives some basis to it. Ultimately, I'm not sure there is or particularly needs to be a strong reason. Why does Fire Control get imps?