When I began alphaing, my criteria at that time was "Out of Acc, Dmg, End and Recharge, I could use the most help with End, as a bonus, added resists are cool too". So I went Cardiac. It occured to me, while alpha slotting other toons, I should have started at the end state and mapped a way to get there. So I'm going about the process of a more thorough analysis of what different alphas do. First up, my Invul/SS tank.
Cardiac Core Paragon
e/n/f/c/t increase roughly 4% from 30 to 34 (varies based on bonuses)
end drain from 1.86 to 1.4 end/sec
Knockout Blow endurance goes from 13.1 to 9.9, Footstomp from 12.5 to 9.6
I like the idea of added range for Taunt and my range attacks.
Cardiac Radial Paragon
Not evaluated - Fear, Sleep and Intangibility don't apply.
Musculature Core Paragon
This is enticing because, for building up survivability, I sacrificed some damage (Jab and Haymaker just have 4 slots of KC)
Jab from 51.8 to 65.1
Haymaker from 140.41 to 169.5
Knockout Blow from 304.8 to 368
Foot Stomp from 142 to 162.4
Hurl from 149.5 to 173
LBE from 128.3 to 142.6, also def debuff goes from 14 to 18.6
The immob is irrelevant
Musculature Radial Paragon
The end mod is the draw here.
Recovery was already 192% (3.88 end/sec), with this slotted, it becomes 204% (4.12 end/sec)
New damage #s
Jab 61.6
Haymaker 162.5
Knockout Blow 352.7
Foot Stomp 157
Hurl 166.7
LBE 138.8, def debuff the same 18.6
Nerve Core Paragon
As mentioned before, Jab and Haymaker only have 4 KCs, so Accuracy enhancements are weak for those 2. I did take Focused Accuracy and have 18% global bonuses. In practice, hitting is not an issue. Also I want to point out I do not have Rage. Please do NOT make the exclusion of Rage a point for discussion, even though I know most /SS Tanks do not approve.
Anyway, against +3s, Jab and Haymaker had 90% chance to land (not factoring in LBE debuffs), everything else 95%. Slotting this gets everything to 95%.
Defense Numbers (all with 1 foe in range of Invince)
s/l - 51.2 to 54.5
e/n - 41.2 to 44.5
psi - 41.5 to 43
f/c - 43.1 to 46.3
Nerve Radial Paragon
Not evaluated. Only the Taunt enhancers were enticing, but I can't remember an instance of losing aggro on a foe I was spamming taunt on.
Spiritual Core Paragon
Recharge and Healing are the goodies. My current global recharge is 60%, no Hasten.
I'm just going to evaluate a few key powers with long-ish recharges - Dull Pain, Knockout Blow, Foot Stomp
DP went from 143 to 125.6 seconds
KoB from 11.5 to 9.5
FS from 9.4 to 7.8
The Heal from DP went from 1505 to 1701 (both get max HP over the cap)
Regen went from 321% (34.4 hp/sec) to 339% (36.3 hp/sec)
Spiritual Radial Paragon
Not evaluated. Only the ToHit was an added bonus and I know there's simply not much to enhance
Right now, I've gone with Cardiac because I would find, in an extended fight, the end bar made a slow, but steady, move to the left. That issue is completely solved now and it's very satisfying. However, there are compelling alternatives. I think, in order, it looks like the best choices are
1) Nerve Core (go from close to soft-cap to reach the soft-cap)
2) Cardiac Core (The resist bonuses are actually disappointing, I don't imagine going from 28 to 32 on a damage type will make a difference, but again, endurance is more managable than it was.)
3) Spiritual Core
4) Muscular Radial
5) Muscular Core
With Nerve, I can swap out FA for Conserve Power and have a tool for those drawn-out fights that were problematic before.
So I'm going to switch directions to from Cardiac to Nerve to get to Nerve Core Paragon.
I submit this post to see if my reasoning is flawed and if there's some consideration I missed.
Edit to add - The endurance drain during extended fights that I mentioned was an issue when I had Soul Mastery and would use Darkest Night. I've since respecced into Physical Perfection, so I'm betting those endurance issues wouldn't exist now anyway.
When I began alphaing, my criteria at that time was "Out of Acc, Dmg, End and Recharge, I could use the most help with End, as a bonus, added resists are cool too". So I went Cardiac. It occured to me, while alpha slotting other toons, I should have started at the end state and mapped a way to get there. So I'm going about the process of a more thorough analysis of what different alphas do. First up, my Invul/SS tank.
Cardiac Core Paragon
e/n/f/c/t increase roughly 4% from 30 to 34 (varies based on bonuses)
end drain from 1.86 to 1.4 end/sec
Knockout Blow endurance goes from 13.1 to 9.9, Footstomp from 12.5 to 9.6
I like the idea of added range for Taunt and my range attacks.
Cardiac Radial Paragon
Not evaluated - Fear, Sleep and Intangibility don't apply.
Musculature Core Paragon
This is enticing because, for building up survivability, I sacrificed some damage (Jab and Haymaker just have 4 slots of KC)
Jab from 51.8 to 65.1
Haymaker from 140.41 to 169.5
Knockout Blow from 304.8 to 368
Foot Stomp from 142 to 162.4
Hurl from 149.5 to 173
LBE from 128.3 to 142.6, also def debuff goes from 14 to 18.6
The immob is irrelevant
Musculature Radial Paragon
The end mod is the draw here.
Recovery was already 192% (3.88 end/sec), with this slotted, it becomes 204% (4.12 end/sec)
New damage #s
Jab 61.6
Haymaker 162.5
Knockout Blow 352.7
Foot Stomp 157
Hurl 166.7
LBE 138.8, def debuff the same 18.6
Nerve Core Paragon
As mentioned before, Jab and Haymaker only have 4 KCs, so Accuracy enhancements are weak for those 2. I did take Focused Accuracy and have 18% global bonuses. In practice, hitting is not an issue. Also I want to point out I do not have Rage. Please do NOT make the exclusion of Rage a point for discussion, even though I know most /SS Tanks do not approve.
Anyway, against +3s, Jab and Haymaker had 90% chance to land (not factoring in LBE debuffs), everything else 95%. Slotting this gets everything to 95%.
Defense Numbers (all with 1 foe in range of Invince)
s/l - 51.2 to 54.5
e/n - 41.2 to 44.5
psi - 41.5 to 43
f/c - 43.1 to 46.3
Nerve Radial Paragon
Not evaluated. Only the Taunt enhancers were enticing, but I can't remember an instance of losing aggro on a foe I was spamming taunt on.
Spiritual Core Paragon
Recharge and Healing are the goodies. My current global recharge is 60%, no Hasten.
I'm just going to evaluate a few key powers with long-ish recharges - Dull Pain, Knockout Blow, Foot Stomp
DP went from 143 to 125.6 seconds
KoB from 11.5 to 9.5
FS from 9.4 to 7.8
The Heal from DP went from 1505 to 1701 (both get max HP over the cap)
Regen went from 321% (34.4 hp/sec) to 339% (36.3 hp/sec)
Spiritual Radial Paragon
Not evaluated. Only the ToHit was an added bonus and I know there's simply not much to enhance
Right now, I've gone with Cardiac because I would find, in an extended fight, the end bar made a slow, but steady, move to the left. That issue is completely solved now and it's very satisfying. However, there are compelling alternatives. I think, in order, it looks like the best choices are
1) Nerve Core (go from close to soft-cap to reach the soft-cap)
2) Cardiac Core (The resist bonuses are actually disappointing, I don't imagine going from 28 to 32 on a damage type will make a difference, but again, endurance is more managable than it was.)
3) Spiritual Core
4) Muscular Radial
5) Muscular Core
With Nerve, I can swap out FA for Conserve Power and have a tool for those drawn-out fights that were problematic before.
So I'm going to switch directions to from Cardiac to Nerve to get to Nerve Core Paragon.
I submit this post to see if my reasoning is flawed and if there's some consideration I missed.
Edit to add - The endurance drain during extended fights that I mentioned was an issue when I had Soul Mastery and would use Darkest Night. I've since respecced into Physical Perfection, so I'm betting those endurance issues wouldn't exist now anyway.
Global = Hedgefund (or some derivation thereof)