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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ourph" data-source="post: 5116875" data-attributes="member: 20239">I have not seen a huge effect of build. My players aren't particularly powergamers. Most of the characters they generate would be considered sub-optimal on the CharOp boards, but the characters aren't worthless in combat either. I think as long as some minimum level of effectiveness is achieved, build isn't too much of a factor. From what I have observed, the factors that contribute most to eliminating grind are focused fire, picking the right targets to eliminate early and appropriately timed use of encounter powers, daily powers and action points.One example that occured when my group first started playing 4e illustrates the problem perfectly. They were in a combat with a group of Orcs and each PC (5 PCs total) used their class Encounter power on a different opponent. In addition, they used two Dailies and one Action Point (again, not focused on a single opponent). The Warlord used his Encounter power to grant bonuses to several other PCs, all of whom used that bonus on At-Will attacks, rather than Encounter or Daily powers. The PC who used an Action Point (and received a bonus from the Tac-Lord) used his normal action for an Encounter Power and his Action Point for an At-Will (again, using the Warlord's bonus to modify an At-Will instead of a better power). Their tactics were effective, in that the PCs won the fight, but no monster dropped until the 2nd to last round of combat, then they all died within 2 rounds. If the PCs had focused fire and synergized their powers, the fight probably would have ended 3-4 rounds sooner and monsters would have been dropping throughout the fight - keeping the fight dynamic and interesting.I'm not sure there's a lot to be gained by taking an already good group and making them amazing tacticians, but it's definitely the case that taking an inexperienced group and improving their tactics to average or above can make a big difference (IME).</blockquote>

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