Hopeling

If my conclusion in post #12 is correct (and it perfectly explains the numbers I couldn't figure out in post #11, so I'm pretty confident), you'll actually get 60%, not 56%.

As to why your math doesn't match mine, remember that my Corr I used to test this was level 47, so his PBU was weaker, and HOs were +3 to him so they were stronger.
For a 50 Corr, 3 Membranes should grant (.6*.7867*9.38) = 4.43% defense more than unslotted PBU.
But we can get more. ED-capped defense enhancement (95%) would get you (.95*.7867*9.38) = 7.01% defense more than unslotted PBU, which replaces Weave handily.

To get ED-capped defense enhancement, you'll need 3 Enzymes, 2 Enzymes + 2 Membranes, or 5 Membranes. I prefer the 2+2 option, personally.

If you really want an even stronger Farsight, you could get Clarion Radial, although that would mean using Farsight every 2 minutes exactly, so you don't get overlap and your defenses could drop.

You've stated that these "good" sites exist several times, but I have no reason to believe that's true. Yes, theoretically, there might be non-scammer sites out there, but that isn't borne out by my experience in-game where almost all of the advertising comes from the same 1-2 sites, the ads for which read like spam email. The burden of proof lies with you here. Do you have ANY reason for thinking these sites exist, other than "You cannot directly prove they don't?"

(I'm not trying to bait you into sharing your personal experience with such a site, if you have it. That would not be a wise thing for you to do.)

Besides that, even if such sites exist and do business without harming players, games already exist that sell all kinds of stuff for real money (on a level of "pay-to-win" far beyond what we currently have). They're reasonably popular, in their own niche, but reviled by most players I've spoken to. If CoH goes too far down that path, I will leave, and I know I am not alone in thinking such.

I agree with you here. In fact, in the case of the ITF, clearing all the missions would really be screwing with the story. Remember, we travel back in time to do the TF. Killing hundreds of people unnecessarily is a definite no-no in time travel scenarios.

And when you're manipulating the economy with stolen money?

Gold sellers aren't businessmen, they are criminals. These sites don't do legitimate business, they should not be supported in any way. I'm not sure how they operate here, but in many games they don't even earn the stuff they sell, they mostly take it from stolen accounts and/or manipulating the economy on a large scale.

I'm not at all convinced of that. Well, I mean, maybe that's what they thought when they designed it, but as you've said it isn't how it worked out. It's useful to more builds than Resilient or Intuition, though. I've considered it for several already (most of those characters aren't 50 yet so I haven't actually used it yet, though).

I think of it as "Cardiac with heal instead of res", rather than "Spiritual with endredux instead of recharge", personally.

That's not the best idea for /fire, because your S/L/F shield is also your stun protection. You could probably turn off Tough and do fine, though.

The goal is the same, when stated in broad terms, yes. The overall effect is not - an STF might need more damage, more healing, more debuffs, more tanking, or whatever, depending on what they already have. When forming a UG, what you need depends very little on what you already have; preferably, you want 24 +3s; if you have enough level shifts and Clarions you might be willing to bring anybody at all for the remaining spots, but at no point do you say "we have enough level shifts, need more unshifted characters". Moreover, you don't run a bunch of ITFs first to turn your Corruptor into a Tanker so that you can tank an STF to make it go smoothly.

The problem ("everyone ignores the actual enemies") is caused by a gimmick ("gather stuff quickly, who cares about those guys shooting you") and so the solution is more gimmicks?

It doesn't get a whole lot tougher than level 54 IDF. The problem isn't that they're easy, it's that the objectives allow you, if not outright encourage you to ignore and run past the enemies. Wouldn't matter if they were Rularuu instead, or Vanguard, or Arachnos, or Carnies, or dozens of 54(+2) Maelstroms buffed by STF towers if we still don't even attempt to fight them.

OK, as I thought. Then no, asking for level shifts is not at all the same as asking for certain ATs. Leaders ask for certain ATs because they want a balanced team - "we have five damage dealers, we need some support" or "we have all squishies, we could use a tank", that kind of thing. Nobody ever says "We have too many +3s, we need more unshifted characters to make this trial easier."

If you want to compare it to a TF, it's like asking for characters that are IO'ed out.

No, it isn't.

Edit: Wait, TSF? What is a TSF? I'm guessing Task/Strike Force, but I've never seen anyone refer to that as TSF before so I'm suddenly uncertain.

There are two other sets with only one AoE - three, if we expand the discussion to Tankers and include Martial Arts. Tremor does the same damage as Whirling Hands, for almost exactly the same cost, with the same recharge, but in a larger radius. Foot Stomp is of course amazing. Dragon's Tail has the same radius and recharge and almost the same cost as WH, but does more damage. Plus, all three of those attacks have a high chance of knockdown, instead of a low chance of a mag 2 stun. Foot Stomp and Dragon's Tail also animate faster than WH.

Dark Melee technically has three AoEs, but two of them can barely be called attacks and the last one is a slow narrow cone, so its AoE overall could be argued to be even worse than EM's. Dark Melee, however, also has stronger single target damage, and heals you instead of damaging you.

Some of them aren't, by that definition, yes.

OK, I can accept that definition of a PUG for the moment. Let's look at the original point of contention regarding PUGs, then:
And hey, look, a league composed entirely of the first eligible people to come along does indeed have a good chance of succeeding on a trial (at least, on the easier ones), so those do indeed meet GGs definition of casual. UG tends to require more coordination, and more pickiness in forming the team, so that's not nearly as casual. I haven't done MoM and TPN enough to comment much on them.

But if that isn't your definition of casual, would you kindly clarify what you do mean by the word?

Edit: And all of this should not be mistaken for me defending the Incarnate trials. I'm sick to death of them and they represent lots of the things that drove me away from other MMOs. To me, though, their problem is not that they aren't casual.

If the greys in atlas park were actually red and could still kill me easily after they stopped giving XP, yeah, I might.

How odd. You don't usually see the slippery slope fallacy in reverse. "You already have several holes in your head - it can't hurt you if I make several more."