StrykerX

Do Incarnate powers really make that much difference? Your standard farmer is mowing down tons of weaker mobs rather than fighting the sort of thing that Reactive procs will have time to add up on, so as long as you use a build that doesn't require Cardio and can survive without a Destiny buff the only thing you're missing out on is the level shift and a bit of recharge or damage. That will make you PL faster, but I can't see it making such a huge difference as to make non-Incarnate PLing worthless.

Incarnate abilities certainly increase the variety of characters that can farm well, but I don't see them making the old pre-Incarnate farming builds that much faster.

Does she have a Performance Shifter +end proc slotted? Those can go off while your bar is draining after a nuke and prevent you from bottoming out.

Well, it does sort of have a very limited combo system in that a couple of the attacks can only be used with momentum. It is pretty brainless though since it uses the Dual Blades style orange circles... just don't try to use the momentum-only attacks unless they're lit up and you're fine.

Actually, I do some of both. Sometimes I come up with a concept that demands certain builds, while other times I have a build idea and come up with a concept to fit it. I think the real difference is that you play a lot more at 50 (I only have five 50s, and three of them are semi-retired) while I play mostly low and mid level. I also only have two softcapped characters, though I do have a couple that will eventually be softcapped (forget price, you don't really have the slots to softcap in the 20s or 30s). My big problem is that I often lose interest in a character before hitting the point where I can afford a high end build and start yet another alt, which is why I have so many alts sitting in the teens through 30s. And among my 50s one is a team-focused Plant / Storm Controller (he can solo pretty well, but not +4/x8 since he's built for pure recharge rather than defense and Seeds doesn't hit everything) and one is a pre-I9 Blaster I've never updated with IOs. My Bane probably could solo a few things at +4/x8 (I haven't tried because he doesn't have the AoE to make x8 fun) and I could probably tweak my Archery/Energy Blaster's build to solo x8 spawns if I boosted his ranged defense, though that might require purples to maintain his recharge levels so I doubt I'll bother any time soon. And I'm actually considering redoing my Fire/Fire Tank's build since the buff to Fiery Aura... I suspect he could be pretty nasty with some heavy IO slotting. Maybe that'll be my next project if I lose interest in my current Crab.

Maybe on a Tank, but it would take a ton of reds to put a Brute so close to the cap that you don't benefit from Rage. You might get that many on an ambush farm but I doubt you would in any non-AE setting and I'm assuming that AE nerfs will continue until at some point farming does move back to normal missions.

That's true solo, but Tanks are normally team ATs so really the most important things are the ability to take an alpha and the ability to keep tough enemies focused on you. SR Tanks will be more vulnerable than most because if the RNG doesn't like them on the initial alpha they're going to be in danger of being finished off by a lucky boss hit. Decent healing or some resist buffs from the team will help of course, but I can see SR tanks breezing through most spawns with little trouble and then having some very nervous moments on others... most other Tankers are going to be more consistent on how much damage they take so SR Tankers may annoy Empaths more than most.

Blasters are fun but they require specific builds to handle large amounts of aggro. Also, those builds are significantly lower damage than pure recharge and +damage builds, so a Blaster optimized for team fire support is going to struggle more solo but add massive damage to a team. I wouldn't consider Controllers in general that great for soloing at x8 either though... some are, but several primaries lack reliable AoE controls and about half of them have too little AoE damage to really take down large groups. They can theoretically do it but it'll be slow unless they have the right epic pool and secondary. Things like Fire/Kin or Plant/Storm steamroll mobs, but something like an Earth/Empathy or Ice/Cold are going to solo large spawns very, very slowly. At least pretty much any Blaster has (or at least has the option of having, assuming the right build) enough AoE damage to toast minions pretty fast so it's mainly just surviving the alpha and then fighting the Lts (and bosses if enabled, but bosses tend to be big trouble for most Blasters).

Most of my Blasters are nowhere near softcapped. I tend to shoot for 25% or so ranged defense and 40-60% recharge plus plenty of accuracy and the odd +HP, +recovery, or +regen. The few that I level to 50 and keep playing get better builds but I can't spend a billion inf per character when I have literally 50 alts and spend 90% of my time on sub-50 characters. Now that A-merits are easier to come by I do spend more on leveling builds, but my only softcapped Blaster is my Fire/Fire and she's softcapped to S/L rather than Ranged since she fights almost exactly like a Spines/Fire Scrapper: jump into the middle of a spawn, AoE down everything nearby, then finish off bosses and zap runners with ranged shots. It's a lot of fun but even with one of the most expensive builds I've ever done (probably 2+ billion) she faceplants very easily. On the bright side, there's something to be said about clearing the wall in Cim at around 10 seconds per spawn.

When you say you can solo everything on +2/x8 at level 50, are you talking about a brand new 50 or one with full Incarnate abilities? If it's a new 50 then I assume you heavily IO all of your characters or else play mainly Brutes, Scrappers, and such... I've yet to make a Blaster that could solo +2/x8 without a multi-billion inf build or significant (and unsustainable) inspiration use. (My one Blaster who does have a multi-billion inf build can indeed solo at least some things on +2/x8 and probably could solo most with inspirations and tactical retreats.) Certainly +2/x8 is a lot easier than +4/x8, but I can think of plenty of builds that wouldn't be able to do either reliably. Some single target focused Blasters, for instance, can have trouble with even +0/x8 while handling +4/x1 just fine.

Of course I mainly play squishies... I recently got a Bane Spider to 50 and was amazed at how survivable he is even without Incarnate abilities (he does have a decent IO build). I'm sure Scrappers and Brutes can tear through +2/x8 without a massive investment, and if I ever get one to 50 I'll see for myself But as a long-time player with probably more Blasters than other ATs combined I can say that squishies can have real trouble with cranking the difficulty much without a defense based build. Try +2/x8 on a frankenslotted Ice/Energy Blaster and let me know how it goes... For that matter, try it on a fully IOed Ice/Energy and you may survive but you'll probably get so annoyed at how long it takes to clear a mission that you set it to +4/x1/bosses instead.

It's not about role-playing, it's about the character's origins. Epic ATs have a completely different origin than standard characters... it's the equivalent of how in other MMOs different races or classes go through different starting areas. VEATS start off by breaking into an Arachnos base and adding their name to the Destined One list, Kheldians start off by running some missions for Sunstorm, and other ATs start off by helping out in the Galaxy City attack. EATs can choose to completely ignore their AT-specific missions if they want to... they don't even have to do the first one if they'd rather just run sewers until they can start getting contacts from radio / paper missions (just like normal ATs can skip the tutorial and starting contacts). But regardless of whether or not you actually do the unique missions part of the character's background is defined by the AT: all VEATs are former Arachnos goons (whatever else they might be) and all HEATS are people who volunteered to join with a Kheldian to become a hero (even if they intended all along to turn villain and abuse that power once they got it). EATs have already made the initial choice to be a hero or villain as a part of becoming a Kheldian or SoA (though again, they can change later) and they aren't in Galaxy City when it is attacked because they are busy elsewhere doing their initial AT-specific mission. Even if they tell their initial contact to go to hell and just join a sewer team instead of actually doing the missions they were still there talking to him when the Shivans hit so they missed the action.

There are actually several that can do this if you throw enough inf at them. Fully purpled Warshades (possibly high end non-purpled ones too), perma-PA Illusion Controllers, Bots/Traps MMs (probably the best option to try it on SOs), and various Brutes and Scrappers. Quite a few Tanks can also do it, though it may take them longer.

Really, soloing most enemy groups at 54/x8 without Incarnate powers is possible for lots of high end builds, especially if you allow normal inspiration and temp power use (ie, use what the missions gives you, but don't go buying a bunch of large insps or collecting Shivans). Soloing all enemy groups at 54/x8 without temps or inspirations is going to be extremely difficult even with Incarnate powers though, because pretty much every build has some enemy that it's weak against. The exception would be a perma-PA Illusion Controller since if everything is always attacking immortal pets and you never even get shot at then it's hard to die.

That will depend heavily on your power sets. Some resist based Tanks or Brutes will laugh at eyeballs but hate Seers or other psi-heavy enemies with a passion, while Plant or Fire perma-Doms will be in trouble against enemies that resist their every-spawn AoE control power. Mobs with stupidly high to-hit are probably the worst for most builds though, since most builds that go for soloing +4 mobs tend to add on plenty of defense to their other protections.

The whole point of having resist debuffs be resistable is to make their effect constant regardless of target. For instance, assuming a 10% debuff against targets with varying resistances hit by a 100 point attack you get:

No resistance
Debuff drops resistance to 0% - (10% * (1 - 0.0)) = -10%
Normal attack = 100 damage
Debuffed attack = 110 damage
10% more damage is dealt

50% resistance
Debuff drops resistance to 50% - (10% * (1 - 0.5)) = 45%
Normal attack = 50 damage
Debuffed attack = 55 damage
10% more damage is dealt

-20% resistance (vulnerable to damage type)
Debuff drops resistance to -20% - (10% * (1 - (-0.2))) = -32%
Normal attack = 120 damage
Debuffed attack = 132 damage
10% more damage is dealt

Regardless of the target, a full stack of Reactive debuffs will make them take 10% more damage from every attack than they would have without the debuff. It may only lower their actual resistance value by a couple of percent, but that will still lead to 10% more damage getting through since the pre-debuff damage is being resisted by the same amount as the debuff.