My dilemma with Regen

You've supported the slotting up FH compared to MoG several times throughout this thread. You initially said you did it because you saw that other people weren't slotting it up. After being told the reasons why MoG needs heavier slotting, you then shifted to the perspective that the two are equivalent options. They aren't. Acting as if they are is playing up the strengths of FH and downplaying the strengths of MoG (re: favorable to FH and disfavorable to MoG).

The problem with applying this same style of logical deduction to CoX is that you're assuming that all of the mechanics operate in a roughly similar way in CoX, like they do in a vast majority of other games. You can't really apply logic as such without first looking into the mechanisms which the game actually uses to accomplish those goals, especially since the overall attribute you're looking into enhancing (i.e. survivability) is actual a composite attribute. It's like trying to increase your damage output by increasing the damage each of your attacks deals while completely ignoring the fact that your accuracy is low.

You weren't encouraging people to take one path or the other. You were telling people that the paths were equivalent when they're not even though I (and others) have repeatedly said throughout the thread that they're not.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. However, there isn't more than one way to skin a cat best. Sure, you could start at the underside and peel away slowly, but it doesn't mean that it's an equivalent path to cutting along the backside and taking it all off at once (what? you guys haven't checking into the most efficient methods of skinning cats?).

The issue with saying that there is more than one way to be optimal is that it's blatantly untrue. There is, no matter what you do, going to be a specific build path that generates better results than all of the others. There may be other builds that attain similar but lower levels of optimization, but there cannot be multiple optimal builds. That's the entire point with optimization: it's all about becoming the best, and you can't have multiple bests.

You have specifically said that it's all a matter of preference. That, by definition, implies that is no difference between the two, or, at the very least that you're downplaying the actual substantial difference between the two. Furthermore, by repeatedly proclaiming this in the face of actual information and analysis, you're acting as if you are right, no matter what information is shown to you to demonstrate your wronghood.

First off, I would never want people to do what I tell them just because I told them to. I prefer everyone to, at least, put in a minimum of effort in order to determine if I am right. The fact that some people know from previous experience that I'm right because I've already proven it in numerous other threads and continually tell it to you in a show of support of me has nothing to do with me assuming that everyone will automatically believe what I say. They believe me because I've already proven it to them.

Secondly, if you're interested in learning what I keep telling you, then read what I'm telling you and check out my methodologies. If it's making you feel like a fool, it's because you were wrong, you've been corrected, and yet you continually insist on trying to disprove your wronghood in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I've had these discussions a number of times (including this very one about me being an arrogant jack-***), and they all end up in one of two ways: you hate me because I made you look like an idiot (most likely with a neg repping along the way) or you hate me, but manage to suck up the fact that you were wrong and start learning from me anyway. Either way, I've already come to terms with the fact that you're never going to be a fan of mine. The question is whether you're going to learn from what you've been told.

It's entirely possible to give advice without being a complete dick and making personal insults. Umbral not only constantly fails at that, but acts like he's an expert on combos he hasn't even played and then calls out other people who have the actual experience to tell them their experience is wrong.

Numbers are good, but using lots of correct numbers don't magically make everything you say right, especially if you use them out of context, especially if you're missing tons of other numbers. Using numbers does seem to make many believe everything you say is right, though.

Then there's the whole "oh I'm so skilled and so much above the curve I can take out Silver Mantis with one hand tied behind my back on my DM/Regen, while also tanking the ITF set for 8. But I won't post videos, nor screenshots. Ever." repeated ad nauseam. Now I believe every claim Umbral makes is theorically possible for a DM/Regen. I'm even willing to believe he might be doing all the stuff he says ; but I also believe in numbers, and human behavioral studies show people who talk on and on about something they do are the ones less likely to actually do that thing. Finally, I believe Umbral is a reasonably smart guy, smart enough to run the numbers and have a good idea of the kind of claims he could make with credibility should he want to claim he's doing stuff he doesn't.

I could go on and on about numbers. Again, numbers are good. There's lots of numbers we do quantify on the scrapper boards ; there's many more numbers we don't quantify at all. Movement speed, network latency to the servers, player reaction time, time spent on teams, active mitigation, number of enemies you face, average spread of each mob spawn are all numbers that are, in some situations, much more important than being at the softcap or not or whatever DPS you have. There's no single answer to "maximum survivability". There's just options that might be likely to be better than others in some situations.

For example, if you think defense is always and in all situations much better for survivability than recharge, you probably haven't experienced what powers like Shockwave or Energy Torrent can do against groups of enemies under EB class with high tohit buffs / defense debuffs.

Now there is specific questions you can give one specific best answer to. If someone asks "I want a such-and-such build with the highest ST DPS possible, everything else is irrelevant", obviously you don't need to consider anything else.

Most of the time, this isn't the case, and there's plenty of options to choose from. Berating other people for choosing another option is stupid ; even if it's an undeniably weaker one in the specific context. I mean, geez, I feel like I'm stating the obvious there. Surely it is safe to assume most of us went to school for a certain period of time in our life. Surely you've noticed insulting people isn't exactly the most efficient way to share knowledge.

You want an easy example to wrap it up, how about this : in one tab, search for Umbral's posts. In another tab, search for Werner's posts. Indeed, as amazing as it might look, it is possible to give good and factual advice without also vomiting on any views differing from your own.

Another reason we need to be able to color epic pool powers... green fire could be explained as spraying your toxic acid that "burns" your opponants for extra damage.

Heh, what's funny about that is I plan to have a green fiery aura once I get my scrapper to lvl 30

Oh, I agree completely. I just think it's generally well-accepted that, unless a regen is keeping themselves near the defense cap with the help of lucks or benefiting from various teammate buffs, an extra 10 HP/sec probably isn't really going to cut the mustard when a pile of stuff is flailing at you, where being able to pop MoG earlier might. I think most of us tend to focus on maximizing solo, non-inspiration-based survivability. Of course neither of those assumptions apply to everyone.

This also all depends on what you're fighting. My DM/Regen would sneer at most even-level x1 spawns, but I am usually actually playing on +2/x4, which she generally can not just sneer at. (I'm working on it, though. )

I say this as someone who does what you do. I like knowing I have kind of dumb amounts of regen, and I am aware I am slightly sub-optimizing other capabilities here and there to get a couple of slots in FH and maybe even Health.

Not to be nitpicky but this is totally false. My /Regen scrap has IH six slotted with doctored wounds and it only brings my regen to 1800% the hard cap at lvl 1 is 2200% and 3000% at lvl 20+