Linea_Alba

As already mentioned .. if you don't have massive AoE .. go pick the biggest ugliest critter and have at. With luck it will die just as everything else dies and the rest of the team doesn't have to waste time and power and AoEs inefficiently whittling a boss down to size.

[ QUOTE ]
...
Being able to potentially do something is good, so is being able to do something all the time. Having options is great.
...
Here, there's arguing about an AT that, with a specific playstyle, has higher performance, but at the cost of lower performance if you play a different way, compared to an AT with the exact same performance regardless of your playstyle but a lower peak performance.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very well said.

Both are great, I play both regularly.

I solo both on challenge level 4 regularly. I like the larger groups of victims.

Storm will have more problems with endurance, and heatloss with heavy recharge completely negates that problem for Cold. However, Prior to recharge reductions, Hasten, and IOs the recharge between heatlosses (may or may not) be too great for your taste.

Storm can be entirely tankish if played offensively, and loses that advantage when played more passively. Playing storm passively is NOT reccommended, but can be viable on larger teams so long as someone picks up the slack.

Storm is also be closest thing to a barrel of giggles I've found. It's a pure delight to play.

Storm tends to make teams safer, but slower. Many people, especially melees will complain loudly about this. However, in actual mission times, the difference is in the 10% to 20% range. A well played storm can make a team nearly twice as safe, and at the cost of only 10% mission time, that can be a real bargain if you ask me. But then If I was playing my pre-nerf trapper that liked nice tight clumps, I might be complaining too. It's a playstyle thing. Of course the stormer can scale back the chaos if the team is already safe enough, but then, if you don't need the safety you might as well switch to the Cold/Ice for the additional buff/debuff magnitudes to increase team speed even more.

Both can solo AVs, however, I think Cold gets the edge here because they can use heatloss to mitigate endurance problems while focusing all their ST debuffs on one target. Even with the AV resistances they can really do a number on AVs. Meanwhile, Storm gets pets and damage, but recently LS was nerfed to oblivion, and Hurricane will be heavily resisted. Pre-nerf, I'd have said it was closer to neck and neck, each with it's own advantages and dis-advantages, now I think the Cold will come out ahead of the storm when soloing AVs. However, the Storm should come out ahead of the Cold when doing general soloing or facing large less focused groups.

I tend to think of my Storm/Ice as my tank, while I think of my Cold/Ice as my destroyer. The Storm/Ice can easily solo an entire ITF rooftop simultaneously, whereas the Cold/Ice has some real difficulty with that.

At the same time, the Cold/Ice completely neuters the Nictus while plastering Rommy and the bloom with -resistance and AoE destruction. You can -damage the autohit nictus, you can -heal the healing nictus, you can heatloss+nuke+rain+sleet the bloom nictus, and all while -recharge flooring the AV of your choice. Three kittens and a frost bitten romy are child's play compared to what you'd face otherwise.

Most of the high level fast moving teams get more out of pure buff/debuff of the Cold/Ice than they do out of the tankishness of the Storm/Ice. The Cold/Ice takes a good team and makes it that much faster. The Storm takes a variable team and makes it safer, but at a small cost to speed.

In the end, both are great, you really can't choose wrong.

Katana / Will Power, They are a very complimentary fit, and will power is one of the best sets for the beginner. Divine Avalanche helps fill the hole in Melee defense in WP, bringing all the defenses up to equal, then the additional resists from WP strengthen the overall mitigation vs melee. A good late-game IO build can soft-cap defenses and still have the additional mitigation of WP. It's almost a hand/glove fit.

Katana/SR can be very nice, can softcap defenses very easily, but is something of overkill in the pure defense area. I generally prefer to diversify more.

Katana/Regen is one of my favorites, but regen is no longer the king of scrappers it once was. The various sets have a much better overall balance now. Still, this is one of my favorites, if not my number one favorite.

as to other scrappers:

Fire Melee/Super Reflexes would likely be the lost cost pick, being a top performer even with SOs, no IOs needed.

Dark Melee/Shield Defense would likely be the top pick when disregarding IO costs.

1. The damage varies from 50 to 180 depending on your combination of primary and secondary, and how you focus your build. Blasters Vary from 90 to 270 depending on your combination of primary, secondary, and build. 4 top of the line defenders will combine and multiply damage to be greater than 4 top of the line non-multiplied blasters. Defenders have a smaller starting point, but multiply each others damage, while blasters typically only add damage, but do not normally multiply it.

2. Define good. Define some goals. Short of a more precise definition I'm left with either saying ALL defenders are good, or picking out something based on assumptions of what you really want. Rad/Sonic, Rad/Ice, DDD, Dark/Ice/Dark, Storm/Ice, Cold/Ice, Storm/Sonic, Kin/Ice, Kin/Sonic, Kin/Rad

3. Defenders are more than capable, it all depends on your goals, your primary, secondary, and build.

4. Offenders are the only way to play. Granted, most random pugs won't have a clue or understand, but that's really their loss.

5. no comment, I don't PvP.

[u]Purchasable MA Additions[u]:
Double Arc Size $4.95
All arcs, current and future, are given an additional 100% storage space.

Three Additional Arcs $9.95

Ten Additional Arcs $19.95

[ QUOTE ]

(by the way, you cannot get one-shot by anything in game, there's code to prevent that, no matter how big the hit you're always left at 1 HP).

[/ QUOTE ]
There are many attacks that do damage in 2 halves, and others that do more conventional DoT. Those attacks by-pass the one-shot code. Even if it only reduces you to 1 hp. Any attack, especially on a freaking minion, that takes 99.9% of your health in a single hit, is too over the top in discrete damage. Spread the damage out so the player has a chance to react that had a duration of over 0.1 seconds. Two attacks that hit for 51% to 65% damage would be acceptable, still overpowered on a minion, but minimally within the bounds of acceptable.

[ QUOTE ]
and having 3 other LT types they never spawned in huge numbers.

[/ QUOTE ]
I used a very similar method to limit some troublesome debuffers. It added a nice level of challenge without being totally game-over thru massive stacking.

[ QUOTE ]
Trick Arrow at hard giving them Flash Arrow.

[/ QUOTE ]
I've told that same example in coalition. It's one of the first "oh-bleep" minions I created. Even with tactics and 2 yellows I was still helpless. That's over-kill and THEN some. TA is now on my "heavily restricted" list.

Fire Hd/Ninjitsu std Lt with Blaze was the second "oh-bleep" ... one-shotting anything that didn't have a health boost. Even nerfed to the floor as Fire std/Nin std minion it still hits for a bit over 50% health on characters without a health boost.

Sonic Blast EX/Rad Em EX Bosses are another on my black list, pretty much insta-nuke death for 7/8's of the team. Insta-death is not good. Insta-team-wipe is very not good. I'm very hesitant to let any boss get a nuke now, and quadruple play-test and check them if they do.

LT's seem to be the most flexible and useful mobs, I can see having many types of them, while limiting minions, and nerfing bosses.

/Ninjitsu One Shot Kills
Currently /ninjitsu get 4x damage. Using /ninjitsu on anything higher level than a minion on standard results in one-shot kills. A big no-no in my book. If you want to use /ninjitsu minions, but don't want to many of them, pad your minions with other minion types or npc types to reduce the number of /nin to (1 in 4) or less.

Test your arc
Once you finish your arc, test it yourself solo. Take your biggest meanest toughest character (prefereably a melee) and test it. Then take your softest squishiest defender and test it. Now you've tested for ranged, melee, and squishy. If you didn't hit a brick wall with any of those three, then you're good to go. After publishing I suggest testing it with 8 man teams as well, to make sure the high end doesn't multiply out too hard, either. My first arc took dozens of solo runs to tone down and 4 or 5 eight-man runs to finish the job. You can make a custom MA too easy solo but impossible teamed, or to hard solo but too easy teamed.

Add an Ally
Once you have everything balanced out just the way you want it, add a custom combat defensive Lt Ally to further help those soft and squishies. I like an Elect Hd/FF Hd Lt, they help everyone and have minor self healing so they don't fall over dead too easily.

Correct: a Huntsman or defender truly only shines when there's so many team mates that it's contributions are ambiguous at best and rely almost entirely on the merits of Defender Like force multiplication powers.

Hover Crabs are almost miniature gods. Self contained and you don't really need to worry about who or what else is on the team.

On the other hand double assault and double maneuvers on a huntsman is really nice too. Toss in a hover again, and ... you lose a small amount of personal defense and offense (compared to the crab) in order to boost your entire teams defense and offense. On a team of 8, this can easily be more of an advantage than disadvantage.

"I am the Star" vs "We are the Stars."

Looking at a Shield/DM tanker I rolled up a few builds and it appears to me that if you double proc the 3 main attacks, perma-hasten, and have 6-8 critters in range, you should be hitting right at 160 dps. With 10 (max) critters in range you should top out near 170. I think I may be a bit on the conservative side of the numbers. Regardless, 160 on a Shield/DarkMelee is definitely appears doable, and made me take a double look.

So the question I'm left with: Is it easier and/or cheaper to defense-up a scrapper, or damage-up a tanker ?

[ QUOTE ]
I still don't get people's "need" for X or Y for this Task Force. I've done it with 1 Brute, 2 Veats 2 Blasters and I've done it with 3 Defenders, 1 Controller and 1 Blaster. I can't imagine any team of 6 competent players that couldn't do it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't forget the one we did with 3 defenders, 3 corruptors, and 2 controllers on invincible with enemies buffed. Killem All Run, no speedy tactics, Roughly 50 deaths and about an hour and a half maybe two hours, I was too busy killerating to really notice the time. If there was anything alive in any of the missions at the end of the run, it wasn't our fault, we did our best to killem All. That run was too easy, next time I'm adding Players Debuffed as well.

Note: I'm aware it's possible to speed-run the ITF in under 30 minutes. The record as far as I'm aware is 23 minutes, and I've personally seen 26 minutes. However, I do not as a rule run using speed tactics. I much prefer the Killem All, or at least Kill most of them, runs.


Oh, and for other peoples examples, there's Nihilli's Scrapper Soloing the ITF just this past week. That was some really sweet footwork on the Auto-Hit Nictus. Everyone should skip over the the scrapper forums and check out that particular video, even if you don't watch the whole series of videos. We seriously need to recruit him into our fold.

Empath/Sonic Blast Scrapper Circa I9

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....=0#Post12981013

Empath Sonic Blast Scrapper

Original Idea and Concept taken from: Green Machines

I've been answering alot of empat questions lately, so ... I decided to just post this instead.

This is a two year old build, and not optimized for solo nor does it include IOs. It was instead built to run as a matched pair, and a match pair only. Only playing when the matched builds were available to play. I would rebuild this slightly differently, tho only slightly, if I was going solo. Some Updated, but Untested, Alpha IO Builds are appended to the end.

In actual game play testing, approximately 2 years ago, we rolled up a pair of scrappers (Kat/Regen and Claws/Regen) and a Pair of Emp/Sonic Defenders. Then we measured Exp/Hr using Hero Stats. In the early levels the scrapper pair had a 5-10% advantage. However, at roughly level 18-24, the Empath pair pulled ahead and never looked back. Optimal Difficulty levels for the Empaths varied from Unyeilding to Invincible. With both levels on average yielding equal Exp/Hour. This can be attributed the ST focus of the builds and the combined -res on hard targets. It's important to note, that all combat had to be engaged using target assist to optimize -resistance and dps. Any time we encountered targets that made us hesitate and heal, thus loosing -resist stacking, things often went downhill fast. Where-as when we hit hard targets with combined synchronized alpha-assisted targeting and heavy -res, they died before we did, and we either healed or regenned the damage. Assist Targetting and Teamwork was VERY important.

I should also note, that the level, intensity, and concentration required for this type of co-dependant teaming is entirely more than I really care for these days. Now days I much prefer a lower key fire-and-forget playstyle.

The Empath/Sonic Blast - Super Reflexes Regen Scrapper
version 12.21

Along the same lines and RO's Green Machine Super Team, the entire concept is stolen straight from them, but where they run teams of 8, this one is geared more specificly to a pair, or trio.

Note: Fortitude does not stack from same caster, but does stack from other caster. This means duo'd you will only have SR level defenses, you need a trio to get the Elude level defenses Pre-PBU. Once you can Syncrhonize AB+PBU+Fortitude on your partner, they will receive Perma Elude Level Defenses. This will be Level 41, only two levels beyond Elude on Scrappers.

Eventually the Duo/Trio has (near) Perma Hasten + Perma Elude + Perma Instant Healing + Acceptable Damage combined with Resistance Debuffs, and fair control capabilities. I feel a Duo will be impressive.

Standard Offense:
Base + 3 dam + Fort + 2xAssault
100% + 95% + 31.25 + ( 2 * 18.75%) = 263%
Defender Damage Cap is 400%

For Sonic that's 90dps to 120dps once you figure in -resistance, firmly into the damage dealing range. While that's competition for an unbuffed brute, a buffed brute can top 420dps, and is quite safe in his dominance.

PBU Nuke
Base + 3 dam + Fort + 2xAssault + Amplify + PBU
100% + 95% + 31.25 + ( 2 * 18.75%) + 50% + 112% = 426%
Defender Damage Cap is 400%

With 8 Players with PBU Nukes AB Hastened and rotating, that could be a damage capped nuke every 13-26 seconds. *cackles with maniacal glee*

With only the Pair, we'll have one damage capped nuke available every ... 56 to 96 seconds. Enough to put a smile on my face.


Note: Slotting as Always is out of order.

Note: You WILL slurp and lick the carpet solo, it's a Paired Build, you'll be a force of nature paired, but only paired.


Key Concepts:
AB'd Hasten is near perma.
Two Empaths rotating RA's with Hasten and AB can maintain them near perma.
Recovery 6 slotted with AB is a significant endurance boost, to say the least.
4 Damage powers 6 slotted with -res, hasten, and AB is a formidable offense.
Edit: Sirens Song is most likely not going to stack, so scratch sleeping bosses off the list.
Double + PBU + Amplify + Tactics + Assualt Powered Nukes.
PBU Recovery, Regen, and Fortitude for even more tankmage goodness.
Hasten+AB+Nuke means Alot more Nuking goodness.
The Real Fun Begins as early as level 12!

Paired Sonic Debuffs means alot of extra damage from -resistance. Extra damage that works on multiplication instead of addtion, and BYPasses the damage cap. I wouldn't even consider any other blast set for the duo.

Edit: No sleeping Bosses.
Double+PBU+Amplify+Tactics+Assualt+Nuke Entire Spawns. Any bosses that survive the double nuke, will be mag 6 disoriented while we moon them and then run like girls. If the nuke's recharging, We'll just sleep the masses and pick them apart selectively, starting with the ticked off bosses.

4 optional power slots for: Res, Vengeance (who needs Vengeance when you are already perma-elude), Absorb Pain, Fly, Total Focus, Stealth, Provoke (so you can save the lame tank), etc.

Near Zero Optional slots: Unfortuneately there are few free slots left, there are places you can rob them, but there are place you can NOT rob them eitther, because your partner relies on you for those buffs. TI, endmod in RA, PBU, Maybe some Endrdx here and there, once you get stacked RA+AB, Maybe the rchrdx in Sirens Song, with Hasten and AB they may not be needed. It's a TIGHT Build.


Key Powers you want asap:

Hasten - 3 rchrdx
+70% Recharge

Fortitude - 2 Defense - Double Stacked or PBU'd this is Elude
+18.75 ToHit
+31.25 Damage
+21 to +42 Defense ( Base 15 , PBU increases def to 36 to 42 )

Recovery Aura - 3 Recharge (3 endmod optional) - This is your Stamina
+200% Recovery (Stamina is +25% and SB is 50%)

Assault - 2 endrdx
+18.75 Damage
+42.39 Resist Taunt
+42.39 Resist Placate

Tactics - 2 endrdx 3 tohit
+19.5 ToHit (Base 12.5)
+36.33 Resist Perception
+0.48 Perception Radius
+42.39 Resist Confuse
-3.63 Confused
+42.39 Resist Terrorize

Regeneration Aura - 3 rchrdx 3 heal - This is your Instant Healing.
+1000% Regeneration (Base 500)

Adrenalin Boost - 3 rchrdx, 1 endmod, 2 heal.
+1000% Recovery (Stamina is 25%, SB is 50%, and Recovery Aura is 200%)
+825% Regeneration (Base 500)
+100% Recharge (Hasten is 70%)
+80% Resist -Jump
+80% Resist -Speed
+80% Resist -Rchg
+80% Resist -Fly

Powerbuildup - 3 rchrdx
+120% Stun, Sleep, Confuse, Terror, Immob, Hold, KB, KU, Repel, Run, Fly, Defense, Heal, ToHit, Endurance; on powers used for 12.5 seconds.
+7.5 Tohit
+100 Damage

Sirens Song - 2 Acc (2 sleep, 2 rchrdx optional)
44.7 second mag 3 sleep - minor damage prevents stacking.

---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Healing Aura==> Heal(1) Heal(7) Heal(31) EndRdx(40) EndRdx(43)
01) --> Shriek==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) EndRdx(9) Dmg(23)
02) --> Scream==> Acc(2) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) EndRdx(9) Dmg(25)
04) --> Heal Other==> Heal(4) Heal(7) Heal(33) EndRdx(42) EndRdx(43)
06) --> Hasten==> Rechg(6) Rechg(15) Rechg(15)
08) --> Clear Mind==> EndRdx(8)
10) --> Howl==> Acc(10) Dmg(11) Dmg(11) EndRdx(13) Dmg(31)


This is where the real fun begins. Super Reflexes for the defender.
12) --> Fortitude==> DefBuf(12) DefBuf(13)
14) --> Super Speed==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Shout==> Acc(16) Dmg(17) Dmg(17) EndRdx(21) Dmg(29)

This is your Stamina
18) --> Recovery Aura==> Rechg(18) Rechg(19) Rechg(19)
20) --> Amplify==> Rechg(20) Rechg(21) Rechg(23)

Optional: Assault, Tactics, Ressurect, Hover
22) --> Hover==> Fly(22) Fly(43) Fly(46)
24) --> Assault==> EndRdx(24) EndRdx(25)

This is your Instant Healing
26) --> Regeneration Aura==> Rechg(26) Rechg(27) Rechg(27) Heal(34) Heal(34) Heal(36)

Who needs Controllers! Coordinated Teamwork and Siren's Song just made life downright cozy.
28) --> Siren's Song==> Acc(28) Acc(29)

Optional: Assault, Tactics, Ressurect, Hover
30) --> Tactics==> EndRdx(30) EndRdx(31) TH_Buf(37) TH_Buf(37) TH_Buf(37)

This is when everything becomes Perma
32) --> Adrenalin Boost==> Rechg(32) Rechg(33) Rechg(33) EndMod(34) Heal(36) Heal(36)

Optional: Assault, Tactics, Ressurect, Hover
35) --> Vengeance or Screech

Bring on the Nuclear Pain - with a nice accuracy bonus
38) --> Dreadful Wail==> Dmg(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)

Damage Capped, Extended Disorient, Super Nuclear Pain and
PBU Enhanced Fortitude for Perma Elude level Protection.
41) --> Power Build Up==> Rechg(41) Rechg(42) Rechg(42)

The rest of the story ...
44) --> Temp Invulnerability==> EndRdx(44) EndRdx(45) DmgRes(45) DmgRes(45) DmgRes(46)

Optional: Assault, Tactics, Ressurect, Hover
47) --> Fly==> EndRdx(47)
49) --> Resurrect==> Rechg(49)
---------------------------------------------

Strategy and Tactics

We are NOT healers, we are scrappers.
You are your partners everything, and your partner is your everything.
All buffs go to your partner first and foremost before any other character on the team.

Clear Mind: Try to put this on your partner before each major battle, otherwise use only reactively.
Fortutide: You can keep this on 2 to 5 people. The first application always goes to your partner, refresh this on your partner before any large battle.
PBU+Fortitude: Once you reach this level, AB + 1 recharge in PBU should synchronize PBU and Fortitude, giving your partner PBU Enhanced Fortitude for Perma Elude Level Protection.
Recovery and Regeneration Aura: Give a 5 second warning, then buff while on the move or in battle. Alternate This with your partner, eventually between the two of you rotating, it will be perma in rotation.
Adrenalin Boost: This is key to keeping other powers perma, this always goes on your partner, period. If it's up, cast it on your partner on the move.

Siren's Song: Sirens Song for Moderate Control. However, then you will need to refrain from using your Howl detrimentally.
Dreadful Wail: Double Dreadful Wail will mag 6 disoreint even bosses. PBU+Amplify+Fortitude will damage cap the blast, as if you'll need two at once...
Note: Sleeps before Double Nukes, will not only put the targets to sleep, but put a -res on them as well for extra damage. -Resistance + Sleep + Nuke = Ouch. PBU will also lengthen the disorients and sleeps. (?)

IF we can do without res and invisibility, we might pickup screech for double disorients. Mag 6 disorient the one boss and rip him apart while he's helpless, rinse and repeat. We'll have to see how things unfold around 22.

Binds
I'll need to play with binds some, but I expect the standard heal other binds combined with a partner bind will work.

Teamselect #

Is the only reliable method. So I'm making a macro, as macros are easier to edit, and then binding the macro to the keyboard. Just edit the macro in the extra toolbar I never actually use, once per team, then use the normal keybinds.



Updated Solo Optimal with Psy Mastery

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Updated Solo with Offensive PBU - Less Solo Control but more offense

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Soldiers and Widows Comparison Chart (Repost)

Soldier and Widow Comparison Chart (Repost)

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...rvBcD6G8uC0vXQ

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Unless it's changed and I missed the patch notes, GMs already give 2 Merits each.

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I must hve missed it.
That still leaves AVs and HEROES.

Or give more merits based on % of critters killed. 99% or more doubles the bonus. 8-p

Ok, that'd be a nightmare, so It'd take more research than that, but I do think it's a good idea. This system is rewarding only the farmers and speed runners, not the average player that tends to take twice as long per TF as the professionals.

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Poster: MadScientist
Q: Have you considered simply adding 1 Merit per AV?

A: Yes, Archvillains and Monsters are just too easily farmed. There are missions where they are very easily ghosted to and defeated.


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And with Diminishing Returns I don't see a problem. First AV/HERO/GM 1 Merit, Second AV/HERO/GM 0.5 Rounded up to 1 Merit ... Third AV 0.25 Rounded down to 0.....

So someone can get 1-2 Merits in an afternoon, big deal. To prevent farming: Tie the Merit to the (Completion of the Mission + Defeat of the AV (AV Only, EB doesn't Count)) so that the mission cannot be outright farmed. Easy, and then it's not meaningless if someone gets a wild hair and decides to go Kill <insert Zone AV GM> or Whatever then Run a few missions out of their Patron Arc. They get at most a couple of merits for an afternoon's play. That sounds more than fair to me.

You could even make it Limit 1 only per 24 hours for a GM/HERO/AV, but if you did that, I'd make it 3 separate timers.

You CAN reward casual play without creating farming havens.

The "Holy MMO Trinity"-ness of your post really makes me want to scream. I'll refrain. I think it's a knee-jerk reaction.

The fastest run I know of is 28 minutes. But I think some have run it down to the 23, 24, and 26 range.

Suggestions:

One or Two /Traps combined with a good taunting brute or tank can really burn thru the content. They drop huge packs of mobs in very short order. It's the equivalent of a nuke every 30 seconds. Much like an 8 man GM spec empath team, nukes every 30 seconds or faster. This is what I've been running the last few weeks, It's why I mention it.

I know you're mostly wanting to ignore the mobs, but bring a pair of trappers (with support) and you can kill them as fast as you can ignore them. Obviously, Sonics, FFs, Veats, are good additions for any team. A pair of GM spec empaths are great too. I really can't even begin to imagine all the combinations.

A pair of Team Teleport Veteran powers, can save a ton of time.

On mission three, do it backwards.

On mission four, clear the door, then:
a) Jump to Rom then clear the towers. (down the center, don't walk either path)

b) Clear the Towers, then jump to rom.

I prefer to land on the square, clear it, and fight rom there with immobilize. Others prefer the tower pull. I've really never liked the tower pull.

Walking any path to rom, is a time sink.

I've had others say, that jumping down the center spawns the entire map and slows the mission down. I've not seen this effect myself, but it could be I have more cpu/gpu horsepower and don't notice it.

Comments:

Of the half dozen teams I've been on that cracked the 1 hour mark, only one had a brute or tank.

I've seen the ITF done many different ways, there isn't one solution. Yet, no matter what team I form, or what team I join, even if half the people on the team have never done the TF before at all, there are at least 8 opinions of the "One and Only Way" to do it.

There are many solutions, and many ways, and many team combinations. There are even many team combinations that do not include a brute/tank to make a sub-1 hour run.

It's also not uncommon to run in the 60-70 minute range. If you can organize a 70 minute run in 15 minutes, that IMO beats a 60 minute run that takes an hour or two to organize. Of course, I'm happy with my even more random runs for fun and leveling, that average closer to 2 hours. Much less stress, and no need to constantly needle to get the "perfect team". I'll take what I've got and do the best we can, and be happy.

"United We Stand, Divided We Fall"

If I have to chase you down to keep you alive, you die.
If I have to chase you down to give you buffs, you don't get buffs.

It's not my job to chase down a chicken with it's head cut off.

If I DO chase you down, chances are someone else, that isn't acting less than optimally team minded, will die.

I agree with the OP (except maybe that 6 tank thing). But you also have to keep in mind point of view. He's trying to maximize the over-all TEAM. He's not trying to save any one individual PuG, nor is he trying to create dog incarnate. In fact, he's also assuming competent players, offenderish defenders, and controllers, not holy trinity pure builds.

Fortituding another empath, FF, or Sonic bubbles first, helps eliminate the weak link, equalizing and balancing the entire team. This really is probably the single best thing you can do. A well played FF or Sonic Bubbler can transform an entire team into tanks, but if they die, all those "fake-tanks" will die very shortly there-after.

Controllers are major force multipliers, it only make sense to leverage that asset. Leverage the asset, increase the difficulty, and steamroll even faster. Forget to leverage the asset, and watch the team wipe quickly.

Defender again, leverage your team multipliers. While the individual increments are smaller, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Blaster ... all you gain is a little more damage as the Blaster can Blast Brainlessly. There are, however, less bull in a china shop approaches to increasing TEAM damage.

Scrapper ... If you're into the holy mmo trinity, and you don't have a holy tank, then fortitude on a scrapper is the next most holy thing. Of course, you could fortitude a decent offender for the same results, but that would be unholy.

Tank. If a tank "Needs" fortitude, something might just be wrong. maybe. Not always. However, chances are you want to look at either the tank or the team composition as a whole.

On the assumption that a +3 boss is roughly as hard to hit as a +5 minion, and you are not debuffed and they are not buffed.
(This has always been my assumption, but may be incorrect)

60 ish accuracy (45 + 15 global) + Leadership will near cap anything other than +3 Bosses, which will be 80% ish chance to-hit.

Soldiers and Widows Comparison Chart

I'll be happy to take the Stormy, Ice Tank, and Fire Tank you kicked to the curb on each of my STF runs. I'll take all those "not the best defender/controller ATs" in the other 5 slots.

Storm/Dark Blast
Ice Tank/Ice Melee
Fire Tank/Fire Melee
Empath/Force Bubbles
Sonic Bubbles/Sonic Blast
Earth Control/Trick Arrow
Earth Control/Sonic Bubbles
Illusion Control/Empath

Without leadership EVERY team member could have ...
Resist: Capped (108%)
Defense: Capped (63% to 105%, not counting PBU)
Regeneration: 1000% (Scrapper Instant Healing) to 2000%
Recovery: 400% to 1200%
Tohit: +20%
Damage: +40%

Leadership on the 6 defcon could add:
Tohit: +100% = +120% (+ yet another 40% tohit for vengeance = +160%)
Damage: +100% = +140%
Defense: Vengeance! +40% = +140%

So 2 Tanks, 3 defenders, 3 controllers and all of them from your kick to the curb list. Yeap, I could make that work, and that's just the buffs, I didn't even touch what the debuffs and controls add to the team.

Of course none of that is "easy" to achieve without teamwork. It all relies on close coordinated teamwork. But if you can't stand short breaks before each major engagement to buff and make sure everyone is on the game plan, you aren't gonna be able to do this TF anyway.