TopDoc

[ QUOTE ]
You statements about bright nova bolt make me wonder if you really do play a PB as you state. My PB is level 50, and actualy has much different use of slots than I displayed, because of hamidon enhancements. All of my nova form attacks are currently 1 acc/damage, 2 damage/range, 2 recharge, 1 end redux. Nova form is 3 slotted for end recovery. Long AV/Giant monster fight has me bottom out on endurance, and at atleast 1 or 2 points throughout the battle I have to pause for about 2 seconds for recharge, before I start another minute+ attack chain. Fighting normal enemies, this toon will not have end/recharge issues.

Conserve Power is meant as a partner to Hasten. If you are claiming somehow that with hasten, you don't run out of end, your either don't have as much damage, or as much recharge slotted. Either of those are bad because you are doing less damage, and doing it less often.

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Let's analyze the Nova powers for DPS. If you're not a math geek, just read the yellow parts. I'll list the Damage Scale (DS) from the Power Data Standardization thread mentioned earlier (it's proportional to your Base Brawl Index), and the "pure" activation time as Prima will be reporting it in their next guide, if they realize they forgot to put the Kheldian dependant powers in their last guide. Finally we find the Damage Per Second of Activation (DPSA) by taking the Damage Scale and dividing it by the Activation Time plus 0.2 seconds (the game puts that between attacks).

Bright Nova Bolt, 1.5 Act, 1.5 Rchg, 3.12 END, 0.60 DS, 0.353 DPSA
Bright Nova Blast, 1.5 Act, 4 Rchg, 5.2 END, 1.0 DS, 0.588 DPSA
Bright Nova Scatter, 1.5 Act, 12 Rchg, 11.86 END, 0.99 DS, 0.582 DPSA
Bright Nova Detonation, 2.5 Act, 16 Rchg, 15.18 END, 0.90 DS, 0.33 DPSA

In order to maximize your DPSA versus AVs and Giant Monsters, you want to cast Blast and Scatter as often as possible, and fill with Bolt. Avoid Detonation like the plague; it has a high END cost and a lower single-target DPSA than Bolt. The ideal single-target chain is: Blast, Scatter, Blast, Bolt. That requires Hasten and 2 extra Recharge Reduction slots in Blast and Scatter. It takes about 6.8 seconds and does about 3.59 Damage Scale, for 0.528 DPSA. The total END cost is 25.38, or 19.04 with 1 END reduction in every power like you have, or 2.8 END/second (eps). If you have a better single-target attack chain, please share.

Without Hasten, you'll need to pause or toss in the END expensive Detonation. Patience is a virtue, resist the urge to toss in Detonate. With 2 Recharge Reductions in Blast and Scatter and no Hasten, the chain is: Blast, Scatter, Bolt, Blast, Bolt, pause 0.7s. This chain takes 9.2 seconds, does 4.19 Damage Scale, for 0.455 DPSA. The total END cost is 28.5, or 21.38 with 1 END Reduction, or 2.32 eps.

You can slightly improve that last chain by replacing the final Bolt and pause with a Detonation. The chain will take 9.5 seconds, do 4.49 Damage Scale, for 0.473 DPSA. But it will cost 40.56 END, 30.43 with END Reduction, or 3.2 eps. You get a 4% damage increase for a 38% END increase. Only do this if you have the END.

Speaking of END, it looks like something is wrong with your Bright Nova END Recovery bonus. If it really is 0.76 END/second, slotted with 3 SOs should get you 1.48 eps, or 2.95 total eps when added to your own natural recovery and taking the 0.2 toggle cost into account. You should be recovering END using any attack chain that doesn't include Detonation. Where did you get the 0.76 END Recovery number?

FYI, the new Prima guide lists the Bright Nova toggle cost as 0.13 END. They don't mention anywhere that it is 0.13 END per half second, but that's the case with all of the non-DoT toggles I checked. Hopefully they'll fix this in the next edition. The Bright Nova toggle cost is 0.26 END/second.

I must admit, apparently I've been slacking when it comes to DPSA on my Kheld. I've used Detonation for single target damage! I'd never done a thorough analysis of attack chains for forms. But now that I have, I'll be sure to use my next freespec to improve it. Time to take those Recharge slots out of Detonation and find someplace more useful for them.

[ QUOTE ]
Super speed and stealth, I can understand why you would take, but several enemies can see through stealth, NO enemy can hit you through quantum flight, and quantum flight is why you have stamina.

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Quantum Flight has a base END cost of 6 END/second (eps). With a single END Reduction SO, it's still gonna cost 4.5 eps. Last I knew, Stamina was about 0.42 eps, and 1 slotted with an SO is 0.56 eps. Taking into account your normal END recovery of 1.667 eps, you have a net -2.27 eps. Note that you'll run out of END after 44 seconds this way.

What if we drop Fitness and instead add an extra END Reduction slot to Quantum Flight? The extra slot will bring its END cost down to 3.6 eps, for a net -1.93 eps. That'll leave you with about 13 END at 45 seconds when it starts to get expensive.

Granted slots are precious on a PB, I can't justify taking 3 powers when 1 slot will do more.

[ QUOTE ]
06) --> Bright Nova==> EndMod(6) EndMod(29) EndMod(29) Fly(31) Fly(31) Fly(31)

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Bright Nova flight speed caps at 2 SOs. You can take one of those Fly slots out and find a better use for it. I saved you a slot!

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At level 6, all Kheldians can pick Bright Nova or Dark Nova (depending on their AT), which lets them shapeshift into a squid form with a built-in Epic Fly travel power. ... The Fly starts with an inherent +50% Flight Speed bonus, so it can be capped with 2 SO+3 Fly Enhancements.

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I tested this and found I was a bit off. The Nova form Fly is actually 50% faster than the power pool Fly; it is not just Fly with a +50% bonus. The key difference is that extra 50% is enhancable. That means you can cap Nova form Fly with 2 yellow SO--s. Or for those of you who raid Hami, 2 Microfilaments (Travel/End HO).

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...And I was surprised to see that the fly from Bright Nova was Fly with a +50% bonus. You should be able to cap that with 2 SO+3s.

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Looks like I was slightly off here. The Fly from Bright Nova is not regular Fly with a 50% bonus. Instead, it is 50% faster that regular Fly, enhancable. That means you can cap it with 2 yellow SO--s. Here's the data...

Bright Nova Fly at 50: 64 f/s
With 1 SO: 78.3 f/s
With 2 SO: 86.0 f/s (capped)

[ QUOTE ]
...If you can't see how slotting rest for heals helps, go find some time measuring device (clock, stopwatch, hourglass with grains of sand, or whatever you prefer) that is accurate to at least the second, and measure the time it takes you to regen to full from 0. Most people that arn't highly numbers oriented don't notice regen differences when looking at them, but only notice them over the course of time (which isn't something you would normaly do with rest since it only takes 15 seconds to full with no heal slots). Infact you admit that "You don't know that it does anything", why not test it before point it out as something that should be done differently.

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I had previously tested it by resting in front of a mob that was attacking me. I could not fully recover from the damage being done by the mob every 6 seconds, so I had to auto-cast a heal. When I tried adding Heal Enhancements to rest, it did not have any visible effect. It should have. That's why I said that I didn't think Healing Enhancements did anything. I couldn't be positive because I hadn't tested under more controlled circumstances (no Health, no Accolades, different ATs, etc.).

I just tested it more fully. Read the Rest doesn't benefit from Heal Enhancements thread I just posted in the Technical Issues and Bugs forum. You should find a better use for those slots.

You list Activation and Recharge times to a tenth of a second in some cases. How did you determine those values? Several of your numbers match mine, some are close, some differ by seconds. I used demofiles to determine mine. See the old Power Quantification Project in the Player Guides forum for details on how I do this. Experience testing other powersets shows that my activation times are about 0.1 second longer than Prima guide numbers. I believe the game adds a delay of between 0.1 and 0.2 seconds between every attack, and Prima is reporting the activation time without that. My numbers are appropriate to use when chaining attacks one after another. That's how I got my numbers, and that's how people use them. Except for White Dwarf Antagonize, all of our Activation Times are pretty close. Most of our Recharge times differ, with White Dwarf Sublimation being significantly different. Below are my numbers, with yours in parenthesis after.

Power: Bright Nova Bolt
Requires: Bright Nova
Activation Time: 1.7 (1.5)
Recharge Time: 1.5 (2)

Power: Bright Nova Blast
Requires: Bright Nova
Activation Time: 1.7 (1.7)
Recharge Time: 4 (4)

Power: Bright Nova Scatter
Requires: Bright Nova
Activation Time: 1.7 (2)
Recharge Time: 12 (11)

Power: Bright Nova Detonation
Requires: Bright Nova
Activation Time: 2.6 (2.3)
Recharge Time: 16 (14)

Power: White Dwarf Strike
Requires: White Dwarf
Activation Time: 1.3 (1.4)
Recharge Time: 3 (3)

Power: White Dwarf Smite
Requires: White Dwarf
Activation Time: 1.7 (1.6)
Recharge Time: 6 (5)

Power: White Dwarf Flare
Requires: White Dwarf
Activation Time: 2.2 (2)
Recharge Time: 16 (13.25)

Power: White Dwarf Antagonize
Requires: White Dwarf
Activation Time: 1.8 (1)
Recharge Time: 10 (8)

Power: White Dwarf Sublimation
Requires: White Dwarf
Activation Time: .9 (1)
Recharge Time: 60 (50)

Without Hasten or any other Recharge Reduction, Bright Nova Bolt recharges in the time it takes you to activate any other Nova attack. I don't see any reason to add Recharge Reduction to it unless you have dead time in your attack chain, which should be rare.

You indicate that all of the Dwarf and Nova attacks debuff Defense by 5% for 7 seconds. I've never found a good way to test the amount of the Defense debuff. How did you get 5%?

Also, my numbers for debuff duration are significantly different. Each power causes a visible debuff to appear on a target, and the duration of that varies by power. The difference is visibly obvious, and a stopwatch will let you get kind of decent numbers. Analyzing demo files will get you much better numbers. That's how I got the numbers I posted in my guide. Retesting this morning, those numbers still appear to be accurate. The durations are listed below. Where did you get your durations?

Bright Nova Bolt 2.7
Bright Nova Blast 5.7
Bright Nova Scatter 7.8
Bright Nova Detonation 9.8
White Dwarf Strike 5.7
White Dwarf Smite 9.7
White Dwarf Flare 9.8

Blueeyed and I tested Hurricane last night from a Defender, and found it was a 37.5% ToHit debuff (actually 37.56% over 12,777 attacks). That means it has a Damage Scale of 3, beating even Radiation Infection. No wonder Stormies can walk through mobs. Three SOs and even con bosses have a 6% chance ToHit.

As to Darkest Night, the numbers look a little off, but probably not enough to be statistically significant. At DS 1.5, a Mastermind should debuff ToHit by 11.25%. My measured value of 10.5% over 7000 attacks is close, but not close enough to make me comfortable. Where's a Statistics major when you need one.

If you're doing that and you find yourself surrounded by the green glowie goodness of Radiation Infection, you might want to start paying attention. Plus, I'd expect Blasters with Aim and Buildup could be a problem. Even a Stalker with well slotted Tactics, Build Up, and AS might be a problem. But what are the chances that you'll run into a PvP Stalker in Warburg? Have you tried this during prime time hours?

I'll address these points as time allows. Let's start out small.

In the Power Data Standardization/Brawl Index Replacement thread you felt the need to correct me. I said the Nova form DMG bonus was +45%. There as here, you claimed it was 50%. I tested it and posted the following...

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My level 50 PB using unslotted Bright Nova Bolt against a level 1 Hellion did 348.33 damage. After an Enrage Inspiration (+25%), it was 408.39. If the difference in damage (60.06) was 25% of the base damage, then the base damage is 240.24. And 348.33 is 1.45 times 240.24.

Also, using LOTS of Enrages to hit the damage cap, Bright Nova Bolt did 960.96 damage under similar circumstances. The damage cap for Khelds is still 400%, which means the base damage is a quarter of that, or 240.24. And 348.33 is still 1.45 times 240.24.

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Why do you say it's 50%?

It depends on your playstyle, movement powers, and other things...

Solo, you're better off with single target damage. If you're comfortable getting somewhat close to mobs (maybe using Hover to stay above them), then I recommend Cosmic Burst. It does nice damage and has a good chance to Disorient. And with enough Recharge Reduction (AM, Hasten, slots), you can fit it into an attack chain of Bolt, X-Ray, Bolt, CB.

If you team a lot and you're usually safe (thanks to well slotted RI, bubbles, good Tanker, or whatever), then AoE attacks are a lot more efficient in terms of Endurance and casting time. Irradiate is slightly expensive END wise, but it's supposed to be a major DEF debuff. Of course at 30+ you rarely worry about hitting mobs, and RI is probably all you need. Your buffs and debuffs are usually more important in a team, and you never want to have RI drop because you ran out of END from casting too many AoEs. I'd say take one AoE and see how it goes. Electron Haze (cone) does Knockback and may not be liked, but it does decent damage. Irradiate does less damage, and it's PBAoE so you have to charge the mobs. Neutron Bomb does the least damage, but it's ranged. Up to you as to how you like to play.

Something happened to your DAM and Res debuff rows. It isn't clear which is which (one is DAM and the other is DMG). Also, you're missing a Melee Debuff Dmg.

Enervating Field. Targeted AoE, Foe debuff, tested...
Controller: 22.5% Resistance debuff, 25.5% Damage debuff
Corruptor: 22.5% Resistance debuff, 25.5% Damage debuff
Defender: 30% Resistance debuff, 32.5% Damage debuff

Hmm... Something doesn't fit here. Maybe they don't use the same Damage Scale? Maybe the table is off? Or maybe my numbers are off?

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Am I correct that if I knew the Tohit debuff scale for Darkest Night for example I could calculate the actual base debuff of that power?

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I recently tested Darkest Night, because I've got a MasterMind Superteam that I'd like to fine tune. With a sample size of slightly over 7000 attacks, and taking the StreakBreaker into account, it looks like Darkest Night debuffed ToHit by 10.5% for a Mastermind. If Darkest Night is considered a Ranged attack, that means the Damage Scale is 1.4, and Defenders should be 17.5% and Controllers 14%. If it's considered a Melee attack, the Damage Scale is 1.05, and Defenders should be 13.125% and Controllers 10.5%. Looks like I'll need to find a Dark Defender to test this, as I don't have one. Anyone desperate to get these numbers?

I also tested Radiation Infection. It was 31.2% for Defenders (13,000 samples) and 25.5% for Controllers (don't have the sample data handy). It looks like that will require some more testing, because those numbers don't work out cleanly. If I had to guess, I'd say RI has a Damage Scale of 2.5, and should debuff ToHit for Defenders by 31.25% and Controllers by 25.0%. Time to test RI on my level 40 Fire/Rad Corruptor!

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If someone can get me the baseline damage numbers for a level 20+ kheld, I'll double check the table. I need the unenhanced, unbuffed damage of each of the 4 nova form attacks, and the corresponding human form attacks. Attack an even level minion with no vulnerabilities, and record those 8 numbers.

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I'm beginning to think you're right. I always thought it was strange that Bright Nova Bolt was listed as Minor damage, even though it had a higher Brawl Index than Glinting Eye, a Moderate damage human form attack.

The following are all by my level 50 PB against a level 1 Hellion.

Gleaming Bolt: 125.11 en
Glinting Eye: 208.53 en
Gleaming Blast: 341.99 en
Radiant Strike: 250.24 sm + 240.23 en
Proton Scatter: 206.44 en
Luminous Detonation: 187.67 en
Incandescent Strike: 390.37 sm + 500.48 en
Solar Flare: 355.34 en

Bright Nova Bolt: 348.33 en
Bright Nova Blast: 580.56 en
Bright Nova Scatter: 574.76 en
Bright Nova Detonation: 348.33 en + 174.16 sm

White Dwarf Strike: 96.42 sm + 141.8 en
White Dwarf Smite: 90.75 sm + 283.6 en
White Dwarf Flare: 255.24 en

Divide the damage by 6 to take the level different into account, divide by 1.45 for Nova attacks, and then by the appropriate modifier gives some very clean numbers.

Gleaming Bolt: 0.60 en
Glinting Eye: 1.0 en
Gleaming Blast: 1.64 en
Radiant Strike: 1.0 sm + 0.96 en (melee)
Proton Scatter: 0.99 en
Luminous Detonation: 0.90 en
Incandescent Strike: 1.56 sm + 2.0 en (melee)
Solar Flare: 1.42 en (melee)

Bright Nova Bolt: 0.60 en
Bright Nova Blast: 1.0 en
Bright Nova Scatter: 0.99 en
Bright Nova Detonation: 0.60 en + 0.30 sm

White Dwarf Strike: 0.34 sm + 0.50 en
White Dwarf Smite: 0.32 sm + 1.0 en
White Dwarf Flare: 0.90 en

Next we need to decipher the various damage definitions in the power descriptions (Minor, Moderate, High, Heavy, Superior, Extreme), as I expect they will directly correspond to Damage Scale numbers. Of course we'll probably find a lot are off given that powers have changed a fair amount. For example, both Glinting Eye and Bright Nova Blast have a Damage Scale value of 1.0, yet one is Moderate while the other is High.

[ QUOTE ]
Are you taking into account that nova form has a 50% inherent damage buff over it's base damage? (not 45% as TopDoc indicated)

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I retested this, and Bright Nova has a +45% Damage buff.

My level 50 PB using unslotted Bright Nova Bolt against a level 1 Hellion did 348.33 damage. After an Enrage Inspiration (+25%), it was 408.39. If the difference in damage (60.06) was 25% of the base damage, then the base damage is 240.24. And 348.33 is 1.45 times 240.24.

Also, using LOTS of Enrages to hit the damage cap, Bright Nova Bolt did 960.96 damage under similar circumstances. The damage cap for Khelds is still 400%, which means the base damage is a quarter of that, or 240.24. And 348.33 is still 1.45 times 240.24.

Why do you think it's 50%?

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hmm. this i was not aware of. though on my claws scrapper, with two ranged attacks, they have adhered to the melee brawl index that we have been using. i'll check this when I get home.

(did you get that compressed file? )

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What you think is melee and ranged isn't necessarily what the game thinks is melee and ranged. Some funny stuff came out of the Defense work Arcanaville and others have done. I believe melee range cones and player PBAoEs are considered melee attacks, at least for Defense purposes. Focus is longer range than any melee cone, but it may still be considered a melee attack for Defense and Damage purposes.

(yes I got the file but I haven't run it through my script)

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could you explain why you added these modifiers rather than simply listing the brawl damage for each at at each level.

also, could you explain why you differentiate between range and melee charts because i see it as adding an unnecessary level of complexity.

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The new modifiers are probably closer to how things are actually coded. The Brawl Indexes tend to be things like 2.778, which is really 2.7777... These are clearly not nice simple numbers that people would pick. Well, with these Power Data Standardization (PDS) modifiers, that same number would be 1.0. I believe the Devs refer to it as Damage Scale. If you want, you can just multiply every Brawl Index value by 0.36 to get its PDS value. You'll get a lot cleaner numbers. In fact if a number isn't clean, it's probably wrong!

Range and Melee have different charts because on some ATs they are different. Compare a Scrapper's level 1-10 temp power (ranged) and Brawl. Going from level 1 to 10, Brawl will increase about 83%, while the temp power will increase only 47%. On the other hand, a Controller will see both increase 50%.

Where did you get your numbers, because they don't match a lot of mine. I put out a PB Power guide long ago, based on a fair amount of testing.

There are a few things in your build that I would change. FYI, I have a tri-form PB as well, with human form for mainly buffing. Your Nova and Dwarf forms look nice. That's where you spend most of your time, so they get LOTS of slots. That doesn't leave much to play with. Khelds are really starved for slots. Taking both forms, you get a lot more powers but the same number of slots as a regular char. Hami Enhancements really make a difference, and let you slot more things.

I don't know that slotting Rest for Heal actually does anything. I tried it once and didn't see an obivous difference. You might want to test it before you dedicate slots to it. Granted there's not much worth slotting at level 3. Still, I'd put those slots in Incandescence.

You took Stamina (with only the default slot) in Human form. Why? It doesn't look like you'll do enough in human form to really need Stamina. I took Stealth, Super Speed, and Incandescent Strike instead. Stealth and Super Speed let me scout missions, and I travel a whole lot faster. Plus Incandescent Strike is great for Quantums and Voids.

Glowing Touch recharges pretty fast, so you might get more for your money by moving those 2 Recharge slots to Hasten.

Bright Nova Bolt also recharges real fast. In fact it recharges in the time it takes to launch another Nova attack. As long as you can alternate Bolt and some other attack, there's no reason to slot it for Recharge.

If you're well slotted for END Reduction and END Mod in the forms, you may actually find that you don't need Conserve Power.

How did you get your numbers for Kheldians in their forms? I know you can use Brawl to directly compare melee attacks across all ATs. And I assume you used the new level 1-10 temp powers that everyone gets to directly compare ranged damage. But you can't do the same for Kheldians in their forms, as I don't believe they can use any other powers. (There used to be bugs with some temp powers being available while in a form, but last I knew those were all fixed.)

Also, the numbers for Nova form seem too high. Did you know that Nova form has a built-in +45% damage buff? I played around with Damage Inspirations to figure this out. A single Damage Insp will not increase the damage on an unslotted Nova attack by 25%. If I recall, it only appears to increase it by 17% or so. If you take a lot to cap damage (400%), divide by 4 to find the base damage of the attack, then compare that to how much you actually do with it unslotted, I believe you'll find that it's +45%. Though for all I know it's changed.

Let me add a new chart. Every AT has a fixed modifier that adjusts their melee or ranged damage off base Blaster damage. For example, in your "% of base (Blaster) damage mod" table, Controllers do 55% of Blaster base damage at higher levels. That means Controllers have a -45% damage modifier. This modifier is scaled at lower levels as follows:

1 0.20
2 0.21
3 0.23
4 0.25
5 0.27
6 0.30
7 0.35
8 0.40
9 0.45
10 0.50
11 0.55
12 0.60
13 0.65
14 0.70
15 0.75
16 0.80
17 0.85
18 0.90
19 0.95
20+ 1.00

In other words, the Controller modifier of -45% is multiplied by 0.20 at level 1, resulting in a 9% damage reduction off Blaster base. This matches the info in your chart, as Blasters at level 1 do -10.00, while Controllers do -9.10. The table above looks too clean to be an accident, so it is likely the actual table used to scale the AT damage modifier at lower levels.

I used the table above, your "% of base (blaster) damage mod" info, and the Blaster damage column to reproduce most of your "Melee damage modifier table" and only got a small number of differences that were +/- 0.01.

Looking at the numbers in the Hero Planner, it looks like Fireball is 75% front loaded damage, 25% DoT. You can cast it quickly, while Rain of Fire and Fire Breath are slower. Fire and Rad have about the same total animation time to cast their 3 AoEs.

At higher levels, I'd usually do Fireball, Fire Breath, Rain of Fire, then Fireball again. AM and extra Recharge Reduction gets the recharge time on Fireball and Fire Breath pretty low. The first Fireball is to soften the mobs up. After all, Scourge doesn't even start till 50% HP. But by the time Fireball recharges, most of the remaining mobs should be in Scourge range.

As Blue_Golden said, it's the Tenebrous Tentacles that make Rain of Fire viable. But you really do need it in order to make Fire the true king of AoE.

As to damage, compare Brawl Indexes. The three Fire attacks have a total BI of about 13.2, available from level 8 on. Rad has a total BI of 6.5 until level 26, where it goes up to 9. There's just no comparison.

Finally, consider Scourge. Irradiate is a DoT, and so can Scourge while it's ticking. The other Rad attacks are front-loaded, so they don't Scourge unless the mobs are already at half HP or below. All of the Fire AoEs are DoTs, so they can all Scourge.

Let me make a few suggestions. FYI, I have a 40 Fire/Rad. I got there in a team of mostly Rads. I founded Buffer Overrun, the all-Rad Hero SG.

For Primary, I highly recommend Fire. It's the best AoE damage powerset, and your primary is all about damage. You have all the debuffs you need in your secondary (but see Dark below). You get AoEs at levels 2, 6, and 8. Nothing compares.

If you're interested in PvP, then take Ice for better single-target damage and holds. The Ice/Rads should go after bosses.

Sonic is just meh. It does significantly less damage than Fire. Adding Sonic debuffs on top of EF doesn't make up for Sonic's significantly lower damage.

Rad as a primary is just as meh. Sure you can debuff mob Defense. But RI does that, and does it better. You don't even need the Def debuff once you get some stacked Tactics. And again Rad falls short of Fire for damage. You don't get the third AoE till 26.

Dark is actually decent. You don't get the AoEs till a bit later, and they only do OK amage. Ignore the ToHit debuff, again RI does it better. The important thing is Dark has Tenebrous Tentacles, which is an Immob. Toss 3 Tentacles and add 5 Rains of Fire, and watch the mobs melt. TT is also nice to keep the mobs together for debuffs. If you don't have some TT, you'll want to skip Rain of Fire.

Most of your other advice is spot on. Leadership FTW! I don't recommend Maneuvers all that highly though as the Def bonus is really small. Yes Stamina and Hasten, you'll still probably want them. No snipes, no Aim. I took Blaze to help finish off bosses. I still recommend EM Pulse because it's the best hold in the game. And I recommend nukes because you'll be able to use them REAL often for massive damage in a team like this. You can open every combat with 2 EM Pulses and 2 nukes at higher levels.

Radiation Infection is a massive ToHit debuff. I believe you only need 2 when slotted to floor anything. Just to make sure you cover every mob, I'd recommend having 3 people who use RI, and everyone else use EF. Everyone toss 1 debuff then start the AoEs. You'll want a couple people with LR for AVs (no elite bosses for this team).

The team I leveled up to 40 with had some defense as well. I believe we usually had 1 Cold and 1 Sonic secondary Corruptor. That let us open combat fairly safely. After all, we couldn't use Phantom Army like we did in Buffer Overrun.

Have you taken your team to 40 Chuck? In between the movies and all.

My character with Rocketeer has one of each type right now. I've heard that's all you're allowed to have, but I haven't actually tried to get more than one at a time.