Jab

Having recently rejoined the game that is very different (in a positive way) to the one I left. I find myself re adjusting and re learning..

For example I have only just aquired hero planner.

One thing that has struck me is the people seem to be slotting jab even as many as 6.
Can someone explain why?
I understand bruising but that does its job regardless as long as you actually land the blow. But jab in itself is a minor power with tiny damage so wouldn't one damage and one acc do the job?

Or even, given how minor the damage jab dishes out is, one accuracy?

It seems to me there are better uses for the other slots. I know I must be wrong because people that know what they are doing are heavily slotting jab.
What am i missing?

What matters in to a power are things like Damage per Animation. Jab and a much heavier hitting attack could be very different on damage but for each second spent on the attack the damage is the same. So if a power is good on DPA its simply good. The heavier hitting attack, by taking longer over it does allow for more end recovery between the preceeding attack and the succeeding attack. Damage per Endurance is another thing to look out for to do the maximum amount of damage for the least amount of endurance. Sometimes for people the 6 slots may offer bonuses. Brawl is also a power which people don't slot but if you had a .67s-.8s break in the attack then why not use it? Ultimately is short sighted to live in the world of minor, medium and large damage as it can leave you wondering why some other player is doing so much better. Jab for some people might get used on each new target or once every 10s on a hard target. The cost of its use is there so if you can afford the slots why not make it economical?

Basically, there are two reasons:

1) You have to take the power, so you might as well max it out as long as you're not taking slotting from somewhere else.

2) Since you're going to be using it a lot because of Bruising, you might as well max it out as long as you're not taking slots from somewhere else.

Edit -> Also, you can slot it with procs, meaning that you've got a fast-firing attack that can sometimes do a lot of damage.

I've six slot mine with Mocking Beratement for the 1.8 end, 2.5% S/L defense and 7.5% recharge, as well as Taunt. Helps keep a single target on my Tank just by keeping the Bruising effect on, plus with them being Inv/SS the above bonuses are really good -especially- since all 6 enhancements cost me about 40m

Since you are going to be using Jab so much because of Bruising, if you DON'T slot it for damage, you will actually be LOWERING your damage output. Granted, Jab isn't a whole lot of damage, but if you're going to be cramming it into your attack chain for the secondary effect it makes no sense to NOT slot it.

Besides, it's a single target attack power, and if I'm going to slot for set bonuses, I much prefer to put the sets in powers I actually USE, rather than putting them in Boxing or Brawl.

Mine's 6 or 5 slotted with Crushing Impact for the extra health, accuracy and recharge. If I have 6 (for my invuln tanker) it's for the psionic resistance which is a big gap for the set.

All my melee has Crushing Impact and Foot Stomp has Scirocco's Dervish.

Now my WP tank has most of the melee's only 5 slotted.

Since most of the defensive powers are only 3 slotted (for my invuln) I have lots of slots left over for my attacks.

So basically it comes down to using extra slots for set bonuses.

I tried using jab with 6 slots and I didn't really think it lived up. So I just left it with just the one slot, which contains a lvl 50 accuracy common IO.

Punch, Haymaker, KO Blow, Hurl, Footstomp. These are the attacks that do the damage on a Super Strength Tanker, so these are all, naturally, 6 slotted.

I used Call me Awesome's guide, which was modified by a friend on my server who gave me his build which he'd adapted from CMA's. I used this build and I have to say it fits my play style for my character perfectly.