Umbral

Here's what I came up with as a multi-billion inf build (there are 2 2 bill IOs in there at the very least). The suggested ST attack chain is FU>Focus>Slash>Wait and you've got Evis, Spin, and Shockwave to work with for AoE. It's just shy of perma-Hasten and packing respectable levels of defense which should be more than enough with Shockwave providing KD goodness. It's not a hyper-focused AV killer or a farming machine, but it'll do both jobs quite admirably

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Claws
Secondary Power Set: Regeneration
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Swipe -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fast Healing -- Heal-I(A)
Level 2: Slash -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Achilles-ResDeb%(7)
Level 4: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(7), EndMod-I(9)
Level 6: Reconstruction -- Panac-Heal/EndRedux(A), Panac-EndRdx/Rchg(9), Panac-Heal/Rchg(11), Panac-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg(11), Panac-Heal(13)
Level 8: Follow Up -- Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(A), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(15), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Hectmb-Dam%(17)
Level 10: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(19), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Dct'dW-Heal(21), Dct'dW-Rchg(21)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(23)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(17), Zephyr-ResKB(25)
Level 16: Integration -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(25), Panac-Heal/+End(27), Panac-Heal(27)
Level 18: Focus -- Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(29), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Apoc-Dam%(31)
Level 20: Spin -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(23), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), Oblit-%Dam(34)
Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(36), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(48), GA-3defTpProc(50)
Level 26: Eviscerate -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(34), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Oblit-%Dam(40)
Level 28: Instant Healing -- Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(31), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Heal(46)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(37), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(39)
Level 32: Shockwave -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(39), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(40), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(40)
Level 35: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 38: Moment of Glory -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(42), RechRdx-I(43), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 41: Focused Accuracy -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(43), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(45), GSFC-Build%(46)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(46), Mrcl-Rcvry+(48), EndMod-I(50)
Level 47: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(48), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Resilience -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

Which is why you should go with CJ rather than Stealth. They both contribute the same amount of real defense (i.e. not out-of-combat, which isn't where you're spending a lot of time getting attacked) and CJ costs a lot less end/sec (.065 end/sec compared to .325 end/sec, that's 5 times cheaper).

If endurance really doesn't matter to you (which might be why you're comparing Stealth to CJ in the first place), your best bet is actually Maneuvers because it contributes more defense than either CJ or Stealth (Scrapper numbers: 2.275% +def compared to 1.875% +def).

I have a Dark/Ice/Psi as well and he's a friggin' beast. Honestly, I don't really find that Dark Miasma and Dark Blast synergize all that much. Sure, you're packing a gob-lode of -tohit, but, honestly, after Fearsome Stare and Darkest Night, you're already flooring almost every target's chance to hit anyway (58.5% -tohit anyone?), not to mention the -tohit in TG and Fluffy and the +def of SF.

My Dark fender routinely tanks for 8 man groups (which is always amusing when there are 1-2 Tankers attempting to do the job and failing at it) on Freedom and always get lauded for my capabilities. Of course, I actually run real mishes rather than AE farms, so I'm not skimming the utter bottom of the Freedom barrel in my search for teammates. The people that I invite can occasionally be ignorant of the awesomeness of Dark (it's quite possibly the least played set after FF and Sonic and easily the most unknown), but I've made quite a number of converts to the Church of the Sacred Fluffy (not to mention the Holy Society of the Disgustingly Good Bubbles on my FF fender).

It probably helps that I actually work to illuminate people as to what exactly is going on with the mechanics of the game. I ensure that newbie blasters understand that the reason they're utterly incapable of dying is because the support individuals on the team are doing their jobs and how each individual toon is contributing (which also oftentime leads to me educating Emp babies that believe they are god's gift to the team because they took all three heals yet are still throwing out smaller green numbers than my Fluffy and myself >.<).

Which means that you'd still be removing more than a billion inf from the system, which is the point. You're not generating money faster thanks to the additional slots. If anything, you're destroying more money faster thanks to the WW tax occurring more often.

First, I never said 150 more; I said 150 total. Second, you'd be spending literal billions of inf in order to achieve that amount, which is by no means an insignificant quantity of money to be pulling out of the economy. Third, I'm still pretty sure you'd see plenty of salvage for sale because not everyone would simply horde 3000 pieces of Alchemical Silver (or whatever). We've got plenty of storage already and the payoff wouldn't really be all that spectacular (supply and demand doing what they will).

The problem with ongoing money sinks is pretty much what you're bringing up here. Personal bases aren't going to drain money from the wealthy (i.e. those that want more money): they're going to drain money from everyone (at best). This is why I generally support single instance permanent effect inf sinks, like an increase to salvage or WW capacity for what would otherwise be considered an inordinate sum because they don't have much upkeep. Would marketeers with 20 billion inf and dozens of recipes/IOs spread across multiple characters be willing to spend one of those billions on an extra 30 salvage slots or an extra 5 WW slots? Potentially, it could be made nearly limitless so that, if you're really willing to spend 20 billion inf on the salvage bags, you could have the capacity for 150 pieces of invention salvage? I doubt many would do that, but I'm reasonably sure that many more would pay for 1-2 individual increases especially on characters that already have multiple billions invested in them.

The other variety of inf sink that you bring up, the convenience cost inf sink, is present in game to some degree (purchasable travel powers), though, I agree that it could deal with a price increase to actually make it a real inf sink. A mission teleporter (or teleporter with access to all zones) with no cooldown and a 100-250k inf cost would work wonders (I think that 1 mill is probably a bit steep to see much use): cheap enough that people will buy multiples and not see using one as a waste but expensive enough to actually drain a noticeable sum from the economy, not to mention that it exists exclusively to provide a convenience rather than a practical increase to effectiveness.

DM is, honestly, a pretty similar beast but it's a beast using different powers. Shadow Punch isn't really a decent money maker any more (thanks to a hard nerf to the animation times of all of the quick punches more than a year ago), but Siphon Life got a very nice buff to its damage. Smite, Siphon Life, and Midnight Grasp are going to be your go to powers and Shadow Punch is pretty much going to be relegated to a filler attack (if you even bother with it). Soul Drain got some major loving too, so you'll love that even more.

Personally, I'd still take Dark Consumption no matter what my secondary was because, even though you're going to have QR, you can always not take Stamina (and thereby not bother taking Fitness). Either way, pre-heavy IO investment, I wouldn't avoid any endurance tool simply because you can always find a way to spend it.

In general, you can leave the click mez protection powers on auto and go to town. They're not going to be permanent out of the box, so you'll probably want to invest a slot or two (or get some global +rech) in order to make it permanent. Keep in mind while using it that if you have a power queued up, it will use the queued power rather than the auto power. When it's recharged, you're going to want to give yourself time to use it so that you're not randomly caught without your mez protection (and thereby without any of your defenses) in the middle of a fight (your defenses will return as soon as you're not mezzed and you can always activated mez powers while you're mezzed, so you're only going to experience a short but intense burst of pain).

If Fusionette is in any way involved with the New Freedom Phalanx (like the New X-Men, right?), I am extremely sorry for the world of tomorrow. She probably is the Coming Storm what with her constantly erratic blasts and idiot prone nature.

The only member of the current Phalanx that I would really want to see in the future version would be Manticore because, as this game's Batman, we all know we want to see Manticore Beyond.

That's entirely debatable on multiple accounts. Because end drain requires the target to have no endurance (or so very little endurance that they might as well not have any) and to remain at that endurance total, you're going to get one of two things when attempting to sap a group: pitiful damage because you're having to slot virtually everything with end mod or enemies attack a lot more often than you'd prefer.

End drain isn't an effective or reliable method of mitigation because enemies need so very friggin' little endurance that you're going to be spending way too much effort to achieve a benefit that is, at most, mediocre and effective only on the weakest of foes.

I say this having actually played multiple sapper toons to 50: an elec/nrg blaster (created and 50ed before the first big end drain nerf when Cryptic was in charge) and an elec/stone tanker. The elec/nrg blaster is reasonably proficient at sapping except that, in order to do so, I've had to trade a boatload of damage for it. As it stands, Short Circuit is either useless as an AoE or useless as a drain (because the targets are either dead by the time I get the multiple applications of SC or functionally immune to end drain thanks to rank or level) and, thanks to being elec blast, my damage is already sub par to most blasters (in order to be an effective damage dealer, she is pretty much required to close to melee). The tanker attempts to drain targets with slotted Power Sink and Lightning Field but, once again, it doesn't really contribute much since you need to keep targets' endurance floored in order for it to be even remotely functional.

The best way to think of -end and -recov as a form of mitigation is to think of it as something like damage except that enemies don't die, they just stand back up and keep swinging. If you miss or forget to reapply the -recov (once you actually manage to get the target's end down with your -end), all of your work is undone and that's assuming that it even did anything in the first place. At least with mez effects, you know that if you actually manage to overcome their protection, they'll be out of the fight for at least 3-4 seconds. With end drain, you can be sure they'll be out of the fight for about half a second before they get enough endurance to use virtually all of their attacks again.

In summation, thanks Cryptic for making end drain functionally useless. Rather than doing something to balance the situation, you overreacted and made end drain functionally useless by making enemy attacks virtually free. How nice...

For an inf sink to work well, it needs to be something that is something that players with ludicrous amounts of money to spend are interested in. For it to be something that wouldn't completely imbalance the game, it also needs to be something that isn't going to generate a substantial combat benefit to the players that bought it (because, like it or not, CoX is a combat game). If there were an accolade that you could buy for 2 billion inf that permanently gave you 50% +rech, 50% +dam, and 25% +def(all), then, yes, that would fulfill the first criteria but fail miserably at the second. If you could buy common IOs from a vendor for 1 mill each then it would succeed at the second, but fail miserably at the first (since people with money are buying rare, purple and PvP IOs anyway).

The point of inf sinks isn't so much to drain money from everywhere within the economy equally (which is why the WW tax and current vendors don't really do much) as it is to drain money from the people that have a crapload of it. It's not the people like Sam with less than 100 mill to their name that are causing the skyrocketing prices of top end gear (and a lot of middle end gear too). It's the people with multiple billions of inf spread across multiple characters.

When designed well, an inf sink will seem to be a complete and total waste of money to a person of low to middling means but an interesting or minorly meaningful buy to people of gratuitous wealth. I wouldn't ever recommend providing costume pieces as an inf sink since many of the people that care about costume pieces are the very people that don't have the money to compete with billionaires (just look at the hate that was generated by some people concerning the booster pack costume pieces). However, benefits like salvage/WW storage spaces, titles, etc. are generally ignored by the costume minded but are (or could be) of some interest to those with inordinate amounts of wealth so they make perfect options.

In general, the best way to grasp this concept is that an inf sink should be more of what everyone already gets but doesn't actually contribute to your effectiveness.

Inf is Inf. It doesn't matter what letters follow: the only difference is cosmetic, especially since the sides don't have any native ability to exchange one of the other.

I wouldn't really consider Prestige a "real" currency since all it buys is entirely cosmetic and non-combat utilitarian. You can't buy temp powers with Prestige, not to mention that Prestige and Inf are pretty well directly linked thanks to the fact that there is a stable, game defined exchange rate from Inf to Prestige.

Once again, not really a currency since you can't trade them between players, and they only have a single function.

Merging any of the existing in-game currencies would not only be stupid, but bad for the game. Candy Canes exist to force you to do Winter Event content in order to get Winter Event rewards. If you could do an ITF and spend the merits you earned there on Winter Event rewards, there would be no reward driven reason to have you partake in the Winter Event content. If you could spend Candy Canes on VG costume pieces, how would that make any sense whatsoever?

The specific currencies exist to grant specific rewards for undertaking a specific subset of actions. You get VG merits for doing VG based activities that allow you to get VG themed rewards. You get Candy Canes for doing Winter Event content so that you can earn Winter Event rewards. There's no reason whatsoever to merge them especially since they take up no real space. Collecting Candy Canes isn't preventing you from getting other pieces of Salvage. Merit awards don't inhibit your collecting VG merits. They could add 38 new currencies in the form of salvage and it would have no deleterious effect upon your gameplay aside from forcing you to undertake different actions to earn different rewards.

Plus, it's not like we have an inordinate amount of additional currencies in CoX: WoW has more than I care to count (though they have a habit of cycling them out so that players can't horde them prior to content release in order to purchase new rewards immediately), some of them specific to specific groups within a tiny part of a single zone with only a single store to buy from.

I would have no problem whatsoever with more currencies being added to the game. I'd love to see some kind of Cimeroran currency to buy Pilum temp powers, a summonable temp Centurion, or maybe some more salvage slots. I think it would be great if there were some kind of Rularuu currency that allowed me to buy Rularuu theme costume pieces (so that my non-weapon/shield characters can have some Rularuu costume pieces) and temp powers (and maybe some recipes/IOs that can't be obtained any other way to boot).

Specific currencies like this exist exclusively to reward specific behaviors. If obtaining them doesn't directly interfere with obtaining any other reward type (by taking up limited space or replacing drops), then the only problem that you could possibly have is that it's too hard to keep track of them when the game does all of the bookkeeping for you and points out exactly how many you have at any time. It's completely mind-boggling that, when the devs want to encourage players to interact with one group of NPCS and create a currency for them that is simple and unambiguous to reward actions involving said interactions that is exchanged for group specific rewards, people get irked because somehow it's inconveniencing them when you're being given more stuff to do!

I think the word you're looking for is "beaucoup" (pronounced boo-coo), which means numerous or large. Bouquet refers to either flowers, compliments, or wine. If you're having a hard time rationalizing the spelling with the pronunciation, blame the French and their linguistic preference for written aesthetics over practical sensibility.

The entire point of an influence sink is to take money directly out of the hands of the economy by providing useful but not even remotely necessary things for people that have way too much money on their hands. This isn't accomplished very well by the current mechanisms in game (WW, SOs, etc) because they drain so very little influence out of the system and, as has been stated, is the reason there is so much inflation currently (and why some IOs are actually going for more than 2 billion influence; doing transfers like this is actually possible, but a bit wonky).

The only major inf sink in game is the complete loss of enhancements when you replace them with other IOs, though, it doesn't actually do much because of the ease with which you can get respecs (and "salvage" 10 IOs with each) and the fact that planners like Mids' are in such use (thereby preventing minimizing poor choice slotting).

Honestly, I wouldn't be at all opposed to some well designed inf sinks, but they need to be done right. In WoW, the best inf sink I have ever heard of was the Gigantique Bag (and now the Portable Hole): it cost an inordinate sum (i.e. more than most people actually own and so was aimed at only the most wealthy) and provided a small but very tangible benefit that had no effect upon combat effectiveness (2 more bag slots than the next largest bag).

In my opinion, some excellent inf sinks would include purchasable title options, additional WW and salvage slots, and cosmetic (buy a toggle that simply grants you the same visual benefit of an aura without costing anything or contributing any benefit) and/or travel temp powers (teleporters, not the flight packs we've got). Make each of them cost somewhere in the order of 500 million inf (and if you think that's a lot of inf, realize that you're not even remotely close to the person that these are being intended for) and I can assure you that you'd see a nice little bit of deflation occur. Prices for the most expensive IOs might actually drop below the influence cap when substantial quantities of inf are actually being functionally erased from the market (rather than just changing hands with relatively minor costs).

It actually hasn't changed substantively since the changes that happened after its initial release. You only kill Rom 4 times in the final mission, though you kill him once in the third mission, so Turg might be counting that as the first kill.

As to the costume options that are unlocked, there are actually 3 tiers of unlockable costume pieces involved in the ITF. The only tier that matters to most people (i.e. everyone except for Broadsword and Shield users) is the middle tier (Roman armor and few weapons and shields). The first tier (unlocked with the Centurion badge) and third tier (unlocked by defeating Nictus Rommy 5 times) give additional broadswords and shields, so they don't matter to most people. The Nictus Sword and Shield are incredibly awesome imo and totally worth the additional run required to get them.

Incinerate>Scorch>Cremate>Scorch isn't the optimal attack string for Scrapper fire melee (Inc>GFS>Crem), but it has exceptional DPS (69.6 base DPS) and low recharge requirements (which are actually realistically attainable at common IO levels with Hasten).

Incinerate: 10 sec base rech, 4.092 sec needed, 145% +rech required
Scorch: 3 sec base rech, 1.716 sec needed, 75% +rech required
Cremate: 8 sec base rech, 4.224 sec needed, 90% +rech required

I thought Nihilii actually did 17 AVs at once some time ago on a DM/Inv she specifically designed for the challenge.

Does everyone who wants to access it have to do a TF for me first? If so, I agree wholeheartedly!

You obviously don't know how fear actually operates then, if you're assuming that DS completely negates fear effects. If you attack a feared target, it's not going to completely cancel the fear effect out and allow the target to attack with no inhibition. The Fear effect only allows itself to be "broken" roughly once every 5 seconds to allow a single attack through. Running DS and CoF will still contribute quite a bit to your survivability (decreasing damage by roughly 50-75% especially at the higher levels wherein enemies are attacking almost constantly), not to mention that CoF does still have the tohit debuff (however small it may be) to assist in deflecting those attacks that are allowed through.

The only problem I can see with the OP is that he doesn't want to realize that it's alright for a set to operate using a different operational limiter than he is used to. DA wasn't designed to be like every other set and it doesn't need to be redesigned to make it fit some arbitrary form that the OP believes that all defense sets should fit within.

DA pays no more for its basic level of survivability than any other set out there. Attempting to argue that it doesn't when all available reliable information disproves your arguments will do nothing for your position. DA does have the ability to pay more endurance than other sets in order to increase its survivability to an even higher level, something that no other set is really capable of, which is where you are generating a problem (since you apparently believe that it should always be played at the limit).

The only problem that anyone that has actually looked at DA intelligently (and by "intelligently" I mean compared numbers and survivability beyond "I've played multiple sets and did worst on DA") will tell you that DA does fine, with the exception that CoF costs way more than it needs to thanks to the brutal nerfings it has received over the years. A reduction in endurance cost to make it a power that is actually a reasonable exchange for OG outside of heavily IO'd builds would be enough, honestly. Other than that, the endurance costs are fine. The only problem that exists otherwise is easily labeled pebkac.

*/Invuln isn't nearly as bad as it used to be since the change to Unyielding. I'm actually considering making my next Tanker an Invuln/Mace because, after playing with the numbers on a few Scrappers and Tankers, I'm really starting to think it could be fun to play and tough to kill.

MA/FA really is about as bad as you can get on a Scrapper (which is kinda sad because it's still pretty effective): */FA offers the lowest survivability of the armor sets and doesn't provide a really significant offensive increase to compensate, and MA/* lacks significant internal synergy, low AoE capability, and low overall utility.

However, I'm gonna laugh when Werner ends up soloing some AVs with that toon just to demonstrate that even the theoretical "worst" Scrapper powerset combination is still a force to be reckoned with. While MA/* is generally considered to be the "worst" attack set, it's still capable of putting out respectable damage. Not much can be said to redeem */FA though, especially when you compare it to */SD.

Actually, the reason for the fear hole in most armor sets (i.e. all but WP, SD, and DA) is that, in the early game (i.e. pre-CoV), fear was almost exclusively a player used mez effect (I don't believe the blue mitos had it at that point). DA got fear protection later on when the scant few enemies that currently use it were introduced (with the logic that you shouldn't be afraid of stuff if you've got your own literal cloak of fear). WP and SD (the newest sets out) both have fear protection. I honestly doubt that the devs couldn't just add fear protection to all of the armor sets now without any problem since I'm pretty sure the mez toggles would have been given fear prot in the beginning had the devs been thinking of it.

This is, comically enough, the same reason why so many armor sets have a psi hole. The original intent behind psi was to have a damage type that you just couldn't dodge (which is also why there the only non-positional attacks that exist are psi). That's why there are powers that are +def(all but psi). They were originally conceived as +def(all) and psi was excluded because you weren't intended to have any defense to psi at all. When psi was finally given a defense type (to prevent it from completely destroying defense based characters), the defense powers that excluded def(psi) weren't kept up to date and the hole was left in.

In yet another interesting case of the game evolving, the reason there is so little toxic resistance (in self heals, a modicum of toggles, and a couple +def buffs) is that originally it wasn't a damage type at all. It used to just be untyped damage. When players complained because it completely destroyed resistance based toons (in the same way that psi used to destroy defense based toons), it was changed to the toxic damage type and +res(tox) was added to the few powers that currently have it.

Stuff like this happens when a game evolves via band-aid fixes rather than comprehensive alteration. Thankfully, most of the band-aid evolution happened thanks to how Cryptic operated, and our current band of devs seems much more inclined to study the entire system and look for an underlying solution rather than just attempting to solve surface problems with simple methods.

It's not so much that Ghost Widow just looked at you and you're quivering in terror. She looked at you and invoked her personal powers to literally scare you crapless. It's not an issue of stuff that would simply scare mortals. She can focus her power on you and break your nerves of steel.

Nice job catching that. Normally I'm pretty good about not messing up with the rule of 5 (bad Umbral!). Just updated the build to account for that (i.e. using the frankenslotting you suggested).

Normally, I slot Hack in the "ideal" manner (5 piece Heca (all but Dam) and AH proc), but I was purposefully avoiding purple sets. If I wasn't, I'd have done a number of other things differently with the build (IH with 5 piece DW, HS with 5 piece Arm, among others). Personally, I think it's a good build to start with since none of the pieces are particularly expensive and/or are easy to earn (the hardest are probably the LotG and heal set uniques, which aren't fundamental to the build's function).

If you're looking for effectiveness, you're best bet is to go with either heavy defense and a side order of recharge or heavy recharge with a side order to defense. Because you're BS/*, you're probably going to want to get enough melee defense (which is the most important to you because melee is the most dangerous to you) to softcap you with a single application of Parry (this generally means between roughly 30% and 27.4% depending on how you slot.). Aside from that, you'll want to focus on getting as much recharge and ranged/AoE defense as you can possibly fit into the build.

You did pretty decent picking out powers, but I'd recommend taking Hack over Slash since it has better DPA, dropping a few of the less used or useful powers (like Acrobatics, Slice, LBE) for the Fighting Pool.

You'll probably want to invest in some Touch of Death 6 piece sets for your single target attacks (and Mako's Bite 6 piece for if/when you have gotten enough melee defense), Doctored Wounds 5 piece for Recon and DP (IH and Integration could also get it if you have the slots and aren't breaking the rule of 5 with the 5% +rech set bonus), and Obliteration 6 piece for your PbAoEs.

As far as slotting goes, you're doing it a bit wrong, as I said earlier. Enhancement values are of paramount importance (which you should look into considering how you slotted some of those attacks) and some stuff just doesn't pay out no matter how you slot it. FH and Health are good examples on a */regen because you'll get a lot more out of simply enhancing your other powers to get more contributive set bonuses (Integration provides more +regen than FH ever will, not to mention that getting more +regen when you're already packing insane amounts is less effective than just packing in some defense). MoG, because everything it does is already functionally as good as it will get, only needs to get recharge loving. You also need to remember that your attacks are attacks first and foremost. Shorting their values for set bonuses of only moderate value (like +recov when you're already friggin' Regen and have one of the easiest time with endurance of any defense set) is going to hurt you a lot in the long run.

Here's a reasonably cheap BS/Regen build that should do you wonders. It's endurance sustainable, packing a respectable amount of defense, and plenty of damage. If you're curious about the reasons behind anything I did, feel free to ask. Nothing in the build is chosen or slotted arbitrarily. I'm not sure what the price range on it should be, but it shouldn't be too bad (well under a billion) since there are no purples or PvP IOs.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Natural Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Broad Sword
Secondary Power Set: Regeneration
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Hack -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(5), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Achilles-ResDeb%(7)
Level 1: Fast Healing -- Heal-I(A)
Level 2: Reconstruction -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Dct'dW-Heal(9), Dct'dW-Rchg(11)
Level 4: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(15), EndMod-I(17)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Winter-ResSlow(11), Zephyr-Travel(13), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(13), LkGmblr-Def(15)
Level 8: Parry -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(17), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), LkGmblr-Rchg+(21)
Level 10: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(23), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Dct'dW-Heal(25), Dct'dW-Rchg(25)
Level 12: Build Up -- AdjTgt-Rchg(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(27)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(29), Zephyr-ResKB(29)
Level 16: Integration -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(31), RgnTis-Regen+(31)
Level 18: Whirling Sword -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Oblit-%Dam(34)
Level 20: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(34), RechRdx-I(36)
Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(36), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(36), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 26: Disembowel -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(27), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(37), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), T'Death-Dam%(39)
Level 28: Instant Healing -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(31), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(42)
Level 32: Head Splitter -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(43), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(43), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Oblit-%Dam(45)
Level 35: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(42), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(43)
Level 38: Moment of Glory -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(39), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Focused Accuracy -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(42), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(48), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(48), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(48), GSFC-Build%(50)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), P'Shift-End%(46), EndMod-I(46), Mrcl-Rcvry+(50), P'Shift-EndMod(50)
Level 47: Resilience -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 49: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

Honestly, in my experience, SGs don't really provide quite what you're looking for. If you're looking for a regular group of people to team with (as it seems like), you might want to consider just joining one of the big global channels, start talking, teaming, and remembering names. Most of the people that I've met in game tend to prefer to be in private SGs because the only major functionality of SGs nowadays is teleporter rooms (which aren't even required considering the huge amounts of other quick transportation that is available). Almost all of what would be accomplished with a guild in other games is accomplished with a global channel here.

I don't think you quite understand exactly what I was trying to get across though: DA isn't balanced in the same way as every other defensive set out there. It's balanced against endurance consumption rather than against incoming damage survivability. If you're going to play it, you're not going to make much headway expecting it to play in the same way as all of the other sets you've played. The secret to surviving on DA isn't killing stuff quickly; the secret is to manage your endurance in such as way as you won't lose all of your endurance being completely unkillable.

Which is more important to you: 3.75% +def(melee) on a typed defense powerset or ~12% of your total DPS?

Honestly, if you really wanted to go crazy, use a 4 piece Kinetic Combat (nets you 20.1 hp and 3.75% +def(s/l)), the AH proc (nets you that sweet, sweet -res), and, depending on the amount of global +rech you're packing, either a Nucleolus Exposure (if you have enough to get GC recharged in under 1.584 seconds) or a Crushing Impact Acc/Dam/Rech (if you need a little help getting it there). You'll have nearly all of the awesomeness of Mako's Bite 6 piece (more, actually, because you're stacking typed with typed; all you're losing is 3% +dam and a pittance of mez resistance) with all of the awesomeness of the AH proc.