The Ol' Mallet Blues

I'm not really a fan of too much math, but since CoH was going down for maintenance in 10 mins and Ragnarl wouldn't get much anywhere in plodding through Striga contacts, I sat down with a calculator to ponder the slotting of his mallets.

After struggling with brawl indexes and 2 end redux + 1 damage versus 2 damage + 1 end redux, I finally decided they were the same Damage Per Endurance (give or take, to the 3rd decimal place.)

But then, I had to worry about activation and recharge times, didn't I? For the normal mallet, that's 10 seconds.

Then I have to take into account my three other attacks with their own funky slotting... and my brain exploded.

Meh, after sitting down again and thinking really hard about it without too much actual calculation, I think it comes down to personal choice and playstyle.

1) If I slot heavily for end redux, this means my damage per mallet swing goes down, but I'll be able to keep swinging more steadily without worrying about my end bar draining and all those lovely armors going POP. As a stone tank, this would fit the playstyle of standing in a crowd of mobs and just swing swing swing until everything dies, but it'll be slow.

2) If I slot heavily for damage, then my damage per swing goes up. Mobs will die faster, giving me the downtime periods to regen end, but I'll really have to watch how I swing, and time my attacks appropriately.

3) OR I could go for balance more or less, 1 acc, 2 end redux, 3 damage eventually, and sit in the middle of the spectrum.

Just taking me into consideration, option 1 seems more like the team build. I don't have to do colossal damage, but it'll allow me to be very resilient and tanky and keep going and going and going like an energizer battery/bunny.

Option 2 would be durned good for soloing, since me on heroic equals about 3 mobs at a time at most, and that means I want them deaders faster.

But then, you must think about the teammates if you're going to team. There is a bunch of end recovery powers from RA (stop screaming, Kelizendis), AM and eventually transference. If end is not a limit, then surely option 2 will be the more friendly team build since I can do heaploads of damage and still not run out of end.

*ponders*

And there's (ugh) hasten to consider. I don't have it now, but that could change in a real hurry once I get granite armor and realize that I really need a freaking respec bad since my recharge rate has gone to nothingness.

And is it even worth slotting one recharge on my mallets?

1 acc, 1 end redux, 1 recharge, 3 dam eventually? Is that the best? Or is that the lazy man's way out without calculating anything. *sighs*

Tricky. Very tricky.