Erydanus

I'm thinking of writing a guide up and it will require more than a dozen illustrative screenshots which is more than the board will host innately. I haven't had to do this in years, the last time I did I was using imgur for these kinds of situations. Is that a reasonable host these days still, or are there any other services that work better?

It is quite tantalizing isn't it? I like some of those new special pools quite a lot. In all seriousness there are 2 of them I would rather take on my stalker over the actual hero-side epic pools. (My understanding is that you would only be allowed to tap into ONE of those premium pools like sorcery or utility belt, which seems balanced and fair.)

Just to briefly explain how the system works, I'll summarize it: There are actually a few different categories of enhancements but there's 2 major ones. Schedule A are the enhancements that are 33% each as SOs and they are the ones used for most things: accuracy, damage, endurance reduction, recharge time, healing, holds, immobilizes, and others. Schedule B are the enhancements that are 20% each as an SO and they are most commonly used for Defense and Resistance buffs, as well as to-hit buffs (like in build-up and tactics, not your personal power's accuracy, which actually IS accuracy). The way the system works is at a certain point you start to lose just a little bit of your total enhancement, and then you hit a soft cap where afterward adding more enhancement only gets you a few percent. With the most common category of enhancements, the first cap is around 83% and the second around 92%. So instead of 3x33% adding up to 99%, it adds up to about 92%. With schedule B stuff, instead of 3x20% adding up to 60%, it caps around 56%. If you did bull ahead and 4 slot something with SOs, the values would be 99.98% (down from 133%) and 59% (down from 80%). So as you can see, going over the threshold is really NOT worth it just in terms of the value. With IO sets sometimes you will, and it's up to you if that's worth it to you. With IOs as well, at level 50 their value is much higher than SOs. The rule of thumb for slotting SOs is 3 max, but with level 50 IOs it can be considered s TWO slotting them. Or more like, 2 1/2 slotting them. Level 50 IOs are worth 42.4% or 25.5%. If you two slot them that minor diminishing return kicks in, you end up with 83.2% (down from 84.8) or 49.7 (down from 51%). If you three slot those, ED kicks in hard and nerfs them down to almost the exact same numbers as 3 SOs which is a huge waste! So for a lot of things at 50 you can probably get away with just using 2 level 50 IOs. Or if you really want to get up that next bit to being in the 90s, use a 2-part IO. Suppose for instance you just don't want to mess with set IOs much but you're ok with using level 50 generic IOs. Suppose you start slotting a power with 1 acc, 2 damage, 2 recharge. For the 6th slot you just get a damage/recharge IO as filler -- you'd still take your damage and recharge right to about 95%. Efficient! In fact if you found a 3-part IO with Accuracy/Damage/Recharge you'd STILL take your damage and recharge to about 95% each but you'd also take your accuracy from 42.4% up to 59.8%. So in conclusion shoot for 92% or 56%, and 2 and 3 part IOs are your friends. If you're using a lot of bits of different IO sets, you'll need to add them up; typically 2 1/2 assorted pieces will take you to the cap, but it might be even fewer pieces if you use a lot of 3 part IOs. So that's basically all you need to remember: 92% for most powers but if they take the smaller value enhancements it's probably the 56% cap.

You know ... it takes practice. I built like 6 starter bases just to remember how to do the basic commands and how layouts worked. Just practice build, scrap, and do it over! There's a lot that goes into a base. We don't have to worry about power and control but layout, accessibility, content - these are not small issues. Then you have to learn the tools for placing items and moving rooms and editing them. Did you know that you can colorize the walls and floors? Adjust the lighting levels at floor, midair, and ceiling heights? And colorize them too? Apply colors and styles to a room or the entire base? There's SO MUCH to learn. If you're just talking function and not roleplay area, I suggest you approach base design with the principles of feng shui in mind (I'm serious here) basically: does everything flow naturally? There's 2 places you typically come into a base through: the entrance, or the med bay. So I like to have my teleport room connected to those two so that you can teleport back out quickly. I also like to have an empowerment station (for the defensive buffs including knockback protection) accessible to the medbay and teleporter. If something killed you, you might need a buff. If you're running off to fight some hard content, maybe you want to dip into the buff room first anyway. So that's a "loop" of rooms I tend to keep close together. Conversely if you come in the front door to craft, you want that room accessible first and so a second "loop" for me is typically the entry, workshop, and usually I put the room with power/control items to balance the base content. Fun stuff spreads out from those 2 loops. I hope that gives you some ideas!

Apologies I'm not going to be able to directly and authoritatively answer your question but I have some general advice at least. First regarding builds. Unlike a scrapper, a Stalker specifically has to worry about Hide, Assassin's Strike, Placate, and Build Up. Sure Scrappers have Build up too but Stalkers use it differently. So I think looking at old scrapper builds would be useful for a reference but not necessarily a template. For instance I didn't check which attacks go into which combo chains in the sample I just made for this post, so maybe they should be taken in a different order? Worth checking. With the addition of inherent fitness pool a lot of builds suddenly had 3 slots freed up. Then, with moving the actual travel powers to level 4 without needing a pre-req, a lot of builds maybe lost another slot (though powers like hover and combat jumping are still great). Then as of i25 everyone gets ninja run or beast run ON TOP OF having both hurdle and swift, so some people are just completely skipping travel powers. But what does this actually mean??? It means that you can take every power in your primary and secondary and you will still have 2 levels (24 and 30) where you you HAVE to take pool powers (unless you're a Soldier of Arachnos, they get enough extra powers they can't; I'm unsure how Kheldians are on this front either.) It basically used to be you'd start a build and ask what power(s) were you going to skip and now you don't have to. That's great because skipping powers is a problem in Dual Blades because you really need to take all the attacks because of the combo system it uses. The only thing you really need to worry about now is the order of powers from 1-20 and if you want to take an optional travel power. How to plan a build - Basic What I like to do when planning a build is I fire up Mids/Pine and first I pick my starting powers and then I skip ahead to the higher level powers, because you're surely never going to want to delay your ultimate attack from level 32 to later, right? So I click powers like that and lock them in at their minimum level (but don't do the whole set that way just yet). Then I look at my secondary and I often lock the higher level powers in, along with anything really crucial like anti-mez. Then I lock in anything that's just really good. Now I'm currently playing a Psi-Blade/Willpower Stalker and I just hit 30. Looking at the last three powers in the Willpower set they are Fast Healing at 28, Resurgence at 35 and Strength of Will at 38. I wouldn't "lock in" a self rez and while I did take Fast Healing at 28 I was not taking much damage so I could have put that off if I wanted something else. Strength of Will I'd be certainly grabbing at 38, I might grab an epic power at 35 (I have a whole other topic about that) but looking through the rest of the secondary the big standout for me is Indomitable Will since it's anti mez. Mind Over Body and Heightened Senses are also the shields for the set so I'd lock them in. Going back to the primary you must have your assassin's strike ASAP so lock that in. Build Up and Placate are important but flexible. From there I would just start picking a mix of attacks and support and slot in any travel power when you want it. Honestly if you took a travel power in the low 20s it would probably be handy; the zones start getting bigger and taller at that point. I like a bit of an attack chain so early on I tend to grab all the attacks and try them out even if I can't fully slot them all right off. We are given a lot of free respecs so it's not a big deal to juggle things around. Anyway, doing that I came up with this sample power selection list for you: Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.96 Level 1: Nimble Slash Level 1: Hide Level 2: Ablating Strike Level 4: Power Slice Level 6: Assassin's Blades Level 8: High Pain Tolerance Level 10: Mind Over Body Level 12: Placate Level 14: Build Up Level 16: Indomitable Will Level 18: Vengeful Slice Level 20: Heightened Senses Level 22: Super Jump Level 24: Reconstruction Level 26: Sweeping Strike Level 28: Fast Healing Level 30: Combat Jumping Level 32: One Thousand Cuts Level 35: [Take epic pool power or Resurgence here] Level 38: Strength of Will I filled in jump just randomly. Teleport is also good, and as a stalker having recall friend is nice because you can run to the end of a task force mission and recall your team and speed things up.As far as slotting, in SO levels I just spread them out. I try to get 1 acc, 1 damage, and 1 recharge or end redux on each attack. For shields, 2 defense/resist and 1 end reduction. I just stick extra slots on whatever attack I am using the most or liking, etc. Don't forget to at least 2 slot stamina. I'm sure someone will have more specific advice but I think this would be ok for leveling and maybe help you understand how to get going with your own builds. I recommend you fire up the planner and do some experimental builds. After you get them, ask yourself what content you like to do. For example, maybe you like running Synapse task force a lot because it pays a lot of merits. Think of the level of that and ask yourself what you'll have at that level. (Like I mean if your favorite thing ever is the Cavern of Transcendence Trial you're obviously going to want a travel power or recall friend in before 14.) By doing that you can check to see if you're made a build that's going to be a problem at a certain level range, either leveling or doing task forces. Honestly I think it's more of an issue for support characters but it's good to think it through as a damage focused character too. I hope this helps!!

I'm glad I was able to provide some helpful thoughts. Please also keep in mind that some part of the answers have been for anyone reading the forums - the relatively new forums - who has little experience with controllers. I just wanted to point out my concerns in general, with a few examples, because of course everyone's build and playstyle is personal! (And the comment about Singularity doing Hellion flinging was of course a joke!)

Thanks for the tip. My character is Willpower secondary so unrelenting had specific uses, but that seems like too many filler powers to get it then. 😑

My vote of course is gravity / rad. All the usual single target and group controls, plus two extra damaging attacks and the best behaved pet. All the most crucial debuffs in rad and two extra holds.

My previous experience playing a stalker was always a villain so I'm used to the Patron epic pools. Now that I'm playing as a hero I'm pretty underwhelmed by the choices. There's a few good powers in there but they overall look pretty bad to me, and they're also formulated very differently than the Patron pools. I looked at the Darkness Mastery pool vs Ghost Widow's pool and they could easily have been quite similar other than including an Arachnos minion, but the hero one is formulated very differently. On the one hand, I get that doing that gives more choices instead of just being a hero reskin; on the other hand, those alternates are not impressing me and I don't see how they're going to help my stalker end-game. I'd rather not randomly go villain at 35 just to unlock patron pools and then come back to herodom, but now I have to consider that. What do you guys do about this? At this point I'm seriously considering taking a bonus pool instead, like maybe Presence (for Unrelenting and an extra Placate). Too bad the additional premium pools like gadgetry and so on aren't in...yet.

But it ugly! ;_;

Try the text command: /edit_base 1 and if it gives you an error ... that may tell you something.

I think that the underlying issue is that Day Job xp is being awarded while logged in - and patrol xp as well as that's what you get if you're not getting day job progress. I was in the cemetery in First Ward waiting for nightfall and I started to get the mortician badge! I've also noticed that my rested xp will get used up and comes back. So that may be part of what you're seeing.

One troubleshooting step you should do first is try a different mouse. That could be a physical problem with the button sensitivity.

Pretty sure I had a Thugs/Dark MM, I remember it was a vampire and his thralls. It worked super well.

Mastermind upgrade buffs zap your whole team (unless one's out of range for some reason). You used to have to zap each minion but it was causing a delay for teams getting set up upon entering missions, so the devs just gave up and made it a 1 and done buff. The recharge is slower now, though, so if one dies in combat and you replace it and equip it and then another one dies, you may not be re-equipping it for a little bit.

I'm going to do something else here. I'm going to post a sample FRANKENSLOTTED solo leveling Build. Frankenslotting is when you ignore set bonuses and just use the pieces with the highest enhancement numbers so that you can compress how many slots you're using to make your powers really potent. It's basically set up for getting to about level 30 and then scavenging all the best pieces off the market (though I took the basic power choices to 38 and used those slots). The idea here is to show you what kinds of numbers I'd be moving toward - of course with it being a soloing build there's a lot of damage in here - but this would be perfectly good teamed up as well. I also made a point of trying to pick pieces from the less rare sets that use cheaper materials. For yourself, what you'd do is just skip on some of the slots assigned to damage and put them on the mez, debuff, buff, and heal powers earlier. Assume all IOs are level 30, except the Karma which should be 10-15. You can buy that with 20 merits so just set the slider to 10 and you're done. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 49 Science Controller Primary Power Set: Gravity Control Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Primal Forces Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Crush -- Rui-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Rui-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Dmg-I(9) Level 1: Radiant Aura -- Trg-Heal/Rchg(A), Trg-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(36), HrmHln-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(36), HrmHln-Heal/Rchg(37) Level 2: Gravity Distortion -- Thn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Rui-Dmg/Rchg(11), EssofCrr-Acc/Hold/Rchg(11), Prl-Acc/Hold/Rchg(13), Dmg-I(13), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31) Level 4: Accelerate Metabolism -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(5), RechRdx-I(5) Level 6: Radiation Infection -- UndDfn-DefDeb/EndRdx(A), TchofLadG-DefDeb/EndRdx(15), DmpSpr-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(15), DmpSpr-ToHitDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(34) Level 8: Propel -- Rui-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Rui-Dmg/EndRdx(19) Level 10: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(21), EndRdx-I(21) Level 12: Hover -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(23), Krm-ResKB(23) Level 14: Crushing Field -- Acc-I(A), RtnGrs-Acc/Rchg(29) Level 16: Mutation -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 18: Gravity Distortion Field -- Prl-Acc/Hold/Rchg(A), NrnSht-Acc/Hold/Rchg(25), EssofCrr-Acc/Hold/Rchg(25), GhsWdwEmb-Acc/Hold/Rchg(27), Lck-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(27) Level 20: Lingering Radiation -- Acc-I(A), RechRdx-I(29), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(37) Level 22: Fly -- Flight-I(A) Level 24: Lift -- MlsFur-Acc/Dmg(A), Dmg-I(31), Rui-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34) Level 26: Wormhole -- Stp-Acc/Stun/Rchg(A), RopADop-Acc/Stun/Rchg(36), RzzDzz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(37) Level 28: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 30: Choking Cloud -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 32: Singularity -- CaltoArm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), CaltoArm-+Def(Pets)(33), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33), CaltoArm-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(34) Level 35: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 38: EM Pulse -- Acc-I(A) Level 41: [Empty] Level 44: [Empty] Level 47: [Empty] Level 49: [Empty] Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Containment Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Empty(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(3), EndMod-I(3) ------------

I was unaware of that. You should probably drop a note about this in the Bug forum. It's something that the I25 devs could probably actually fix quite easily.

I think it's a bit better build in terms of which powers you're taking and when. I've got the new version of Mids now so I can look at what your slotting actually is. It looks to me like you have chosen many of your slottings to get a set bonus and not in order to efficiently enhance a power. For instance in Crushing Field you have selected the Acc/Recharge, Immobilize/Range, Acc/Immob/Rech, and Acc/Immobilize pieces of Enfeebled Operations adding up to 73% accuracy which is just a huge waste. I bet you went there because 4 pieces gives you 2.5% defense to smashing and lethal and 1.25% defense to melee. As a controller, you should not need to worry so much about your personal defenses. You should be using your primary to prevent the mobs from acting and your secondary to mitigate what you can't prevent with your primary. Putting a well enhanced Radiation Infection on a mob and then pinning it in place with an immobilize - and his buddies in place near him with your Crushing Field - is going to negate more damage than every bit of defense and resistance from set bonuses in your build combined. The reason you have powers like Temporary Invulnerability in the epic pool is that you'll be dealing with very high level mobs and large numbers of them and you need some personal mitigation while you deploy your various controls and debuffs as fights start, not because you're going to be under continuous fire. Additionally when you are choosing sets you will often see that they do not line up well with a particular power. In this example, Enfeebled Operation is overloaded on accuracy. Why it has a 1/2 dose of range in there I don't understand, but really it's just overall overkill. You three slotted Crush with a different set and stopped there - the numbers are good! (I'd have gone ahead and put in the damage proc myself.) There are a lot of sets that have stupid stat distributions because when the devs created the sets they literally did not know what they were doing and were making it up as they went along; or they were looking at one example of a power of a given type and not realizing other powers had wildly different stat distributions. For instance single target controller holds have innate bonus accuracy and area effect controller holds have lower than normal accuracy; and also healing powers vary wildly between AoE, Single Target, and the ones that have a to-hit check. While many IO sets for a particular category follow the same pattern, due to player feedback some sets have multiple patterns so be aware of that when picking your pieces. Generally, sets that line up very well and enhance a power ideally right out of the box are the rarities; sometimes, being lured into 6 slotting a power isn't a big deal because you're only going a little overboard but other times you'd really be better off stopping at less. You really do see this when you compare the slotting for Crush and Crushing Field. Honestly when I was playing a Grav/Rad I simply slotted Crush with pieces of a ranged damage set because its base duration on the immobilize didn't need any enhancement and I used it for damage. Side note: you have marked a Blessing of the Zephyr knockback protection IO in your build as a level 50 IO. You will not want that, the benefit would shut of if you exemplared to level 46 or lower; for special IOs like that you want to get the LOWEST level one possible as they stop working if you drop 3 levels below them. I know you can't mark individual IO levels in your builds but I just wanted to make sure you know that trick. You slotted Singularity with a knockback set. That's pretty bold. You are clearly slotting that power for the 7.5% global recharge and the 3 points of knockback protection. Singularity's knockback is in the form of it being a sentient ball of Repel, and you have slotted it with 174% Knockback (knockback is on a different ED scale than damage, you're down from 220% pre-ED). You apparently want your singularity to touch Hellions and lob them to the other side of Perez Park. Wow. Now my memory is a little fuzzy and looking at which sets Singularity takes I think that it doesn't mesh well with most sets other than Pet, but actually there's something better you can do. Not including the purple epic sets and Archetype sets, the very best enhancement for a singularity is: a Peroxisome Hamidon Origin Enhancement. Peroxis enhance all mez types and all damage types simultaneously, and Singy has 3 powers: Crush, Lift, and Gravity Distortion. 3 Peroxis will give you 95% damage, hold, AND immobilize, all in just 3 slots. That's 9 slots worth of enhancement that actually apply to its three powers and there is no set that can touch that. Singularities also have very high accuracy ... to the extent we had a topic on the old game forums titled "have you ever seen a singularity attack miss...ever?" And we couldn't. Again, memory fuzzy but I think we found was at the accuracy cap so maybe if you're fighting +4s it would come up with some misses. I think for mine, I had the 3 Hami-Os, then I stuck in 2 of the pet special protection procs - probably an Edict of the Master/Defense Bonus and a Soverign Right/Resistance Bonus (sometimes it tanked for me). For the last slot I think I jammed in 1 Acc/Recharge just to be sure and provide a little quicker recast if I had to dismiss it. Once you get your singularity you'll quickly see what works for you. Well actually once you start playing this build you'll quickly get a better feel for where you need to just knuckle down and get the basic slotting taken care of first. Hope this helps a lot! Well that in general. Once you get playing this you'll see what you really need and where. : )

One caveat with the Sky Raiders though, the instant the Engineer is dead the pet will de-confuse and stop cloaking you. So it's probably best to blow up the stupid forcefield generator as quickly as you can so it isn't protecting itself once the Eng dies. (Found that out the hard way Friday.)

Previously I had a martial arts/ninjitsu stalker, though that predated some changes to the stalker version of martial arts that annoyed me greatly. I just finally had time to roll one recently and went with Psi Blade/Willpower and I love it! I'm playing him hero side and I've had being a stalker completely break the game. You remember that "clone" mission around level 20? Game couldn't figure out what to do with a Psi Blade stalker and it made a Psychic Blaster instead, I think. Also, What is an Ambush? It's when NPCs run around confused and scared because they can't find you. It's been really nice though for all these hero missions that stealthing to the end speed up. : )

I am currently playing a Psi Melee/Willpower stalker and I recently took Boggle. I left it until later because I didn't feel I needed it but I finally had room for a "whatever" pick. It is just ok but it's definitely not bad; baseline accuracy, 20 second base cooldown, 15 second duration, mag 3, range is 40'. For a confuse not on a controller, the numbers are quite good. Now that my character is closing in on 30, it is nice to have a tool to keep one extra foe busy. I've also done things like Boggled a mob standing near a glowie I am going to click so he remains friendly while I'm briefly visible. I noticed in the power description of Boggle that it gives a bonus chance of you getting Insight if you attack a mob you've Boggled and I think that the designer thought that would be A Thing. But it's actually not. The Insight mechanic the set uses is not rare to trigger, and it has a lockout period afterwards. So a lot of the time I'm in Insight Lockout, and if I'm not in lockout I'll be back in Insight mode soon normally. By the time I'm ready to melee a boggled foe, I'm probably in lockout. If killing a foe with Boggle on it removed Insight Lockout early instead of increasing the chance of getting Insight, it's value would drastically rise. Note that while Insight adds a psi DoT to most of the attacks in the set, it instead powers up Greater Psi Blade into a stronger version. It feels a lot like having a second Assassin's Strike it's such a big difference; not only is GPB a big damage dealer it's also a mag 3 melee hold. The Insight powerup boosts both direct damage and the hold duration, making it a very strong tool; it does however consume Insight upon use and trigger the lockout period. So, when figuring out an attack chain it may be best to juggle GPB later in the chain to get that beta strike effect. Overall I think this is a really good set for Stalkers. Telekinetic Blow has a quick, satisfying animation and reliable knockdown for control, Boggle is a control option, GPB has a hold, and Mass Levitate looks good for planting a whole crowd on their butts. The attacks have good animations and feel like impactful attacks, the sole exception is Mental Strike which feels too weak. I know, I know, it's one of those fast charging low damage filler attacks, but even so this one feels "too weak" to be worthwhile; I stuck a proc in mine. If the proc fires, it's double damage. I am kind of thinking I will be dropping it once I get just a little more recharge in my other attacks. I am just only using it if I run out of powers on cooldown or I have a foe that's barely not-dead (and getting more damage into my other attacks will take care of THAT problem).

Accurate. When I got into the CoV beta my thought was, "OMG this entire archetype is a mistake*" and sure enough when it went live the devs had to buff dominators over and over to get them to the point where they're pretty playable. Mostly that buffing happened to their powered up domination mode. The main thing is, if you're soloing, you need to go slow at first so that you can use your controls to hard hold things, and then beat them to death with your secondary as fast and hard as you can. Once you get your AoE soft controls like your sleep and confuse it'll go much better. (The tree is crap skip it, it is NOT a useful self heal btw.) In my opinion low level dominators are much less soloable than controllers but team just fine. Once you get some levels under your belt it'll be better. TLDR it helps to be somewhat masochistic to play a Dom. ________________ * In my opinion, Dominators should never have been control primaries. They should have had the control power sets as their secondaries, at about 80% of controller effectiveness. Their assault sets should have been primaries (and thus higher damage) and they should have also been formulated a little more like blaster secondaries and had a few utility moves like Build Up in them. Then dominators could have been played more like blappers with holds and the occasional AoE.

I think the message is a bug. You'll see it every level from now on. >_>

Costume changes are free when you are level 1-2. What you need to do is as soon as you exit the tutorial, talk to the first level up contact and select the tailor option. Just as you noticed, my slot #2 did not have the proper sliders or face it was just a random look that had propagated to every slot. So I saved my costume parameters from slot 1 and applied them to slot 2 ignoring the error message to correct the face/sliders. I then created a new non-NPC system look (which is the issue, slot 1 uses the NPC models), saved it, and pasted it onto all my other slots to reset them. TLDR you just need to know to fix it at level 1. Now what would be very nice is if someday we could have a 2nd NPC costume slot. I'd like to have a helm-off version of my widow. And actually since I'll probably have a fortunata build and a night widow build, the same outfit in 2 color palettes.

False. Entrusted with the Secret Badge (and the oro porter) is granted additionally any time your character obtains a badge or story arc souvenir with a time travel element, completes a mission dealing with a time travel element. ANY of them, and there are quite a few. If you happen to go into Oro there's an explore badge (Chrononaut) in there and that's an easy way to piggyback on to someone's Oro portal. You can do the same trick by going into Recluse's Victory and getting a badge. The complete list of ways you can get Entrusted is listed here: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Entrusted_with_the_Secret_Badge (according to this list an explore badge in Cimmerora does not award Entrusted and that, imho, is a mistake/bug.)