SpittingTrashcan

I hate to say this, because I think it's a terrible idea, but it is possible to have a power's additional endurance cost cap out at 8 entities while its buff targets cap out at 255 entities.

But it's still a terrible idea. Maneuvers is not Weave. And if you want to blame anything for Maneuvers and Weave granting small bonuses... blame linear buff stacking. And call for Diminishing Returns in PvE, because that's exactly what it'd take for Maneuvers and Weave to grant significant defense. It might have been a great idea if DR on buffs had been implemented at launch, but there's no way in hell it could be rolled out now.

Oh, if you're assuming a fixed attack chain being cycled indefinitely, and just trying to figure out which power should be slotted most heavily for endurance reduction, then it's easy. Slot the one with the highest total endurance cost in that chain first.

For a really simple example, suppose you have power A costing 5 end, B costing 7 end, and C costing 8 end, and your static attack chain is ABAC. Then the highest total endurance cost is A at 10 end.

Now, if you're trying to build a more endurance-efficient attack chain, then you're in for some bad news. Damage, endurance cost, and cast cycle for single-target powers is by and large on a fixed ratio, so the only way to consume less endurance... is to deal less damage. If you want to maximize your activity while minimizing your endurance consumption, then you want to choose attacks with the lowest DPA.

Incidentally, the above is also why increased recovery is so very good. Characters are machines for transforming endurance into damage, and there's a finite limit to how efficient you can make them - after which, the only way to increase performance is to add more fuel. What's more, the most efficient method for transforming endurance into damage, by an incredibly wide margin, is AoE. Basically, AoEs tend to be 2.5x the cost of ST attacks, but deal up to 16x the damage. But AoE also consumes a lot of endurance, and if you don't have the means to cover the cost of an AoE attack chain, that efficiency boost is unavailable to you.

(The above should not be construed as "take stamina", just singing the praises of +recovery in general.)

Okay, no doms - though you might want to at least touch Plant/Fire before you give up on the AT entirely. Seeds is easy mode, and then you burn stuff. But if it's gotta be a ranged blast set, and you solo exclusively - try a Defender. The Vigilance damage buff puts them about on the level with Corruptors for damage solo, and the support set numbers are significantly kinder. If you want an AR/Dev feel, try Traps/AR or Traps/DP.

If soloing Blasters frustrate you, I have sympathy. I'm kind of low on sympathy for any claim that Blasters need more survivability to go with their best-in-game damage, though.

You are most certainly ignoring team performance as a metric. You have a perfectly valid reason to: you don't team, so team performance is not relevant to you. Therefore: roll a dom. Or an AR/Traps, depending.

Speaking of AR/Traps, and trying to be relevant to the OP: I find that Traps is saved by one power. That power is Seeker Drones. And it makes toebombing Poison Trap and Caltrops so much easier.

It depends on whether your endurance cache or your recovery rate is the limit you're hitting. Consuming end faster than you can replenish it in a fight is not necessarily a bad thing; running out of end before the fight is over almost always is.

Maneuvers looks bad until you multiply it by 8. Then it looks really really good.

Edit: To clarify, a team of 8 Defenders running slotted Maneuvers runs at 43.4% defense to all. Even a team of 8 Blasters running slotted Maneuvers runs at 28.2% defense to all. Stacking buffs are really, really powerful - when people bother to take them, use them, and team with them.

Let's get it over with off the top: I know where Suggestions and Ideas is. This is not a Suggestion (although it is an Idea, or rather many Ideas), and I'm posting it here because I'm looking for the input of people who think about powers that do exist in the game. What I'm trying to do is compile a list of power effects that could exist in the game, using only existing technology, but which no existing power currently does. I'll start off with some examples.

- An enemy-targeted damage toggle. We have enemy-targeting toggles, and we have damage aura toggles, but we don't have the ability to apply a damage aura to an enemy. I do not know whether it's possible for an enemy-targeting toggle to make a tohit check; an autohit damage toggle would, needless to say, be difficult to balance...
- An ability with a negative side effect of power de-boost on the caster. Share Pain and Absorb Pain do this to some extent by granting a -regen effect and 100% heal resistance, but I'm thinking of something that reduces buff and debuff strengths or decreases mez durations.
- A toggle that increases in strength over time. Implementable as a self-stacking toggle whose effect durations are significantly longer than its tick time. Would have to be interestingly constructed to make its slow ramp-up and lingering aftereffects more than just a curiosity.
- An aura toggle that applies a fixed buff, and a self debuff for each enemy in the aura. The user would wish to try to avoid melee...

It's worth noting that, even if a power seems unattractive as a player ability, it might be interesting as an NPC ability. That last one, in particular, would be interesting on an Arch-Villain.

I'm interested to see what else could be done, but isn't yet. Please remember: I am trying to find ideas that do not require new tech.

I've been trying to be reasonable, but when team performance is being dismissed outright as a metric then there's really nothing left to say. Except maybe "roll a dom then."