magikwand

This is pretty awesome. Now my fm/fa brute main can pick back up build up and RotP for kicks. Awesome sauce.

Fire/kin wears many hats. It can be a great buffer, and it can be a super high end damage dealer. I love my fire/kin. Probably my favorite corruptor of all time. She brings it all. And if you are good with slotting and IOs, you can create a beast with great defense, insane recharge, and even more damage. It is certainly versatile, but is a little busy due to the /kin aspect. Nonetheless- teams are always happy when M. Power shows up and starts cooking.

Invuln matches well with many different primaries. DM would give you more healing. SS gives you more... smash.
Minor nitpick- there is only one EM. Energy melee. Electric Melee is known as ElM. And with KM around now, I personally would never create another EM user...

I would aim for recharge and defense. +HP is fine, but won't save your skin as /FA has less than stellar resistance and you *will* get hit by most attacks.

Well if you don't care about min/max differences, then it doesn't really matter which you choose. Both have comparable damage and buff capabilities, particularly with the new vigilance added to defenders.

If you want to experience the new content in Praetoria, you can start out as either corruptor or defender and not have to choose to be hero or villain until later in your career.

I have a dp/kin and I find it fun to play conceptually.

You bet. I don't know the exact numbers, but for a solo or duo'd defender, you will pack a nice punch. Enjoy!

Playing two controllers will probably never be redundant. Storm summoning is probably one of the most control heavy debuff sets around, so you might find some overlap in playing a controller with a storm secondary. At the same time, playing a storm defender with ice blast will almost make one feel like a controller.

My suggestion would be to go ahead with the storm/ice defender. Some of the most recent changes to Vigilance allow a nice +damage bonus that reduces with the number of teammates you have. Since you mentioned that you will likely just duo with you grav control friend, you will probably still benefit from the new buff.

Does. Not. Compute.
Too much AoE... error found.

I have to say... I am not a huge fan the fury cap reduction, but you have overlooked some of the good changes happening. Your post is quite limited in scope and borders on troll worthy. You should read more about some of the changes happening before deciding it is all bad.

Ice tanks are only second to Shield tanks as far as aggro generation, I believe. I can't find the post, but the primaries were all compared once, and ice performs well in that department. As far as a shield scrap pulling aggro off of an ice tank, it is unlikely, but can happen. Shields just packs that much aggro generation. I think it is the risk of running AAO. Sure, it buffs you like crazy, but you also generate wondrous hate for it.

I recently rolled an ice/ss. It was my third tank to date. I only rolled her as I wanted something I couldn't get redside. I know everything has a hole or two to patch, but ice's holes seem workable.

I disagree that the claws/wp is "tougher" than the fire/sd. A fire/sd will run circles around the claws/wp if he is built right. Capped defense, +dmg aura, and Fiery melee being such a potent set that is not resisted by many enemy groups, I think the f/sd would be better in most situations.

ITF gives both SD and WP problems. Defense debuffs are rampant, but sd has more debuff resistance built in than WP does.

Out of the box, yes, a WP tank will not handle alpha strikes as well as an invuln or a stoner. We aren't talking about high end IOd builds. Just SOd builds. WP still performs, but it isn't the best at alpha strikes compared to a few other sets.

Wow. Impressive. Two really cool projects going on here. The OP and Decorum's Virtual Boy.
I don't think I would have the patience for either, but I salute both of you.

WM > Battle Axe. It feel great. The buffs really brought the set out of the dark and into the light. Better than Super Strength? No. But still very good.

Sadly, dp's change ammo effects are slight. They aren't nearly as powerful as one may think. And if you go in expecting the cryo ammo to substitute for ice blast, you will be disappointed. Similiarly with fire blast and incendiary ammo. If you want fire blast lvl damage, you should roll a fire corr.

I have a dp/kin and a fire/kin and I realized that as long as I kept comparing the former to the latter, I would invariably be disappointed. Dp/Kin is fun and can be powerful, but unfortunately it lacks mitigation. Hell, I know fire/kin doesn't have a ton of mitigation built in, but fire just kills stuff so fast that it feels like it does.

Dp/kin looks good... and I am sure that an ultra high end build will perform nicely, but you have to look at the set as a cosmetic and concept set. It doesn't underperform exactly, but it just doesn't provide the punch to knock fire off its perch as dmg king or rub radiation emission off as a debuff specialist.

My three favorite ATs are scrappers, brutes and stalkers. What can I say? I love melee. That said, there are distinct reasons to play each one. Aside from game mechanics and technical reasons, each has a different playstyle and feel.

I guess the reason you might still make one is similar to the reason people play Martial Artists: not everyone is obsessed with being at the absolute maximum DPS/survivable/OMG indestructible cap. Some people just like playing the game because it is fun.

My comment is based on pve- go with WP. Stone melee is somewhat thirsty, so Quick Recovery will allow you some relief. Also, with all of the mitigation included in SM, Rttc will be supercharged most of the time.

I normally grab my fire/fire brute. She is my main and tricked out pretty nicely. That, or my fire/kin corr and just create havoc for everything while buffing my teammates.

My only stalker that made it to 50 is elec/nin. He is a blast to play and quite sturdy. I think elec melee really rocks on stalkers. More so than brutes for sure. My stalker is capped positionally all of the time, and if I get debuffed, I go into Shadow Meld and stand even stronger against my enemies.