Luminara

The UI has been revised several times, introducing bugs which are sometimes fixed, sometimes ignored and often break again on the next update if they are fixed. Elements are moved around with no respect for usability or visual appeal, like the buttons at the top which are all bunched up, wasting space and leaving huge swaths of empty space to either side, and the vast expanse of empty space introduced with the main window scroll function. Some font settings ignore bold/normal checkboxes (they used to work, then they didn't, then they did, and now they don't again) and tiny fonts which ignore size settings. The UI's usability decreases with each update. Can't toggle temp powers as a group any more, for instance, they have to be manually toggled on and they turn off every time you slot or remove an enhancement. Power stats change location on the info tab. It's now impossible to see at a glance what a power's Accuracy is, or how much Endurance it costs because the location of a stat isn't fixed. Trying to work with a Kheldian or SoA build is an exercise in frustration because the UI shits itself even harder, adding scroll bars or cutting off power lists. In old Mids', when you scrolled with the mouse wheel, it would scroll the power description, now scrolling does nothing useful and actively hinders usability. The databases haven't been updated since the SCoRE era. They've been manually edited, but not actually updated. There are hundreds of powers with erroneous stats that don't match the live databases. And that's especially egregious in light of the capability to pull directly from the .piggs and do automated updates like City of Data, because it means they're ignoring everything except new powers, so the less familiar someone is with the game, the worse his/her experience is going to be if he/she's using Mids'. This was a tool created to make the game experience better, and it's not capable of fulfilling that purpose for new players or users any more. There are ongoing issues with database editing, so bad that they tried to lock users out of editing the database. Editing the temp powers group errors out, for example, so you can't add missing temp powers, and if you remove temp powers with the expectation that it's a "not enough room" problem, it allows that then crashes when you try to add what you want, leaving you with even less options. Enhancement mutual exclusivity becomes more and more aggressive with each update, making it harder and harder to work with things like ATOs, and despite people actively trying to explain to them that they're making the program less usable by preventing users from slotting them differently in flipped powers, they keep doubling down on the exclusivity. The .Net and Edge Webview requirements are excluding Mac and Linux users, and even experienced Mac and Linux users are finding it more difficult to make the program work with each update. They added databases for other server groups so more people could use the program... then turned around and made the program less accessible to non-Windows people. And they're avoiding the forums, refusing to engage with us, so they're effectively working in an echo chamber. They're no longer developing the program for players, they're doing it for themselves and "graciously" allowing us to use it, with its multitude of bugs, problems and oversights.

Watch out for enhancement mutual exclusivity. They changed the program a couple of years ago and now when you slot something like a regular ATO in a power, then flip to the alternate slots and try to slot the same enhancement (or the Superior version, if it's that type of enhancement), it'll say no. This affects ATOs, Winters and Overwhelming Force, and it's a pain in the ass to work around. Middle-click can sidestep the restriction in older versions by simply leaving one slot empty, flipping to the alternate and slotting the other version of that enhancement, then middle-clicking the rest into the power (then flip back, select one of the slotted enhancements and select it again in the same slot and middle-click to place the missing enhancement in the empty slot), but last year they made mutual exclusivity even more aggressive, so that no longer works. You have to edit the enhancement database and set the mutual exclusivity group to None on every affected enhancement (several hundred) to fully resolve the issue in the newer versions. Which is why I stopped updating a long, long time ago and make my own database changes now.

Tommy Wiseau is #2, so it has to be most to least.

The power not accepting Range enhancements would definitely be a bug (oversight, actually). That should definitely be fixed.

https://m.imdb.com/list/ls071395299/ Got you covered.

I always build for the end first. Select all powers, dump slots without regard to appropriate level placement, see what it is I'm going to end up with. I slot the most important powers first, then mules, then see what I have left and distribute those with the intention of squeezing every erg of potential out of them. I slot purples and ATOs to see where I'm going to hit caps or run into slotting problems (like too many PBAoEs and not enough sets to go around) and make adjustments (such as slotting a base ATO set into a power instead of the Superior set, so i can acquire the 7.5% or 8.75% global +Rchg, allowing me to use another purple set in a different power), then start on the other powers. I always have at least 3-4 builds prepared. Once I've fully designed a build, I save it and start tweaking. When I reach a new milestone, I save it again and continue tweaking. For a couple of characters, I have 24-30 builds with various changes. Maybe I drop a couple of powers and pick up Cross Punch and Kick (to top off Cross Punch's bonuses). Maybe I change the travel power. Maybe everything is the same, but I've redone all of the enhancements to achieve a different goal. Often, I'm just experimenting with moving one or two slots to different powers and using different IO sets. I stick to a general build pattern most of the time, but I also actively try to break that pattern frequently so I can see what else I can do, and that's frequently given me good results. Then, when I'm satisfied with a build and believe it's going to achieve all of my goals, I flip the slots and start placing level-appropriate enhancements to emulate a leveling build. This allows me to know exactly when I'm going to put a slot in this power, or slot an enhancement in that power. So if I take a power at level 16, the first enhancement in it is level 16. If I add a slot at level 23, I set the enhancement to 23. That way I don't have to redesign the build and place slots at level-appropriate intervals. As I level up, I refine the slotted enhancements to match the character's level, and I can tell what level a character is just by looking. Since Mids' doesn't scale stats by level (you're level 50 in Mids', even if you haven't clicked anything), I ignore most of the info and reference the enhancement values (those do scale by level in Mids'). I make liberal use of the middle-click function in Mids' when I'm matching a build to what I'm playing. If I'm slotting 5/6 Crushing Impact and skipping the first IO, I slot the second IO, go to the last slot and middle-click, middle-click all of the other slots to finish the set, then go back to the last slot and change it to the last IO. Once you're accustomed to using the middle-click function, it's a very fast and efficient way to slot sets while skipping specific pieces by doing it this way. Fill the first slot, go to the end and fill that, middle-click rapidly from left to right, then change the last IO. Boom boom boom done. I also use that function to rapidly match my Mids' build to my leveling character, in the same way. Change an IO level, bunch of middle-clicks, null perspiration, chummer. Unique IOs like Numina's or a Stealth IO, I set to the minimum level. That's my visual indicator that they're Uniques. When I slot a Reactive Defenses: Scaling +Res IO, it's level 20, even in a finished build, and because it's level 20 and all of the other IOs are a higher level, I know it's the Scaling +Res IO without even hovering over it. So, to directly answer the question, I use it for both and in both ways. The fully tweaked level 50 build is important to me because that's the motivation to reach the end. The leveling build is important to me because it gives me the information I need while I'm leveling and helps me identify ways to improve the build.

Not responding != not reading. They can't do their work and respond to dozens or hundreds of posts simultaneously. You can have long, meaningful conversations, or new content/bug fixes/updates to old content. You can't have both, so pick one and live with it.

5s phase,15s activation period. Not random at all.

I see you sparkling, @Snarky.

Shoot the horse, use its skin to make a container and carry the water to a horse that will drink. And, hey, steak. Win - win.

So... this isn't about sacrificing newbies to the old gods (and occasionally making sandwiches with the leftovers)? I'm cool?

It isn't.

No. Pool and temp travel powers don't stack. Pool won't stack with pool, temp won't stack with temp, pool won't stack with temp. Hover, Combat Jumping, all Sprints, Hurdle and Swift stack with pool and temp travel powers. Powers in primaries/secondaries which buff movement (examples: Quickness, Kuji-in Rin, Inertial Reduction) stack with pool and temp travel powers. +Movement bonuses from IO sets stack with pool and temp travel powers.

Since I had Mids' open, I cleared the character I was working on and ran a quick analysis using the brute archetype. Boxing's DPA for brutes is 24.01 without the Fighting pool synergy bonuses (31.22 with). Doubling its damage would give it higher DPA than most of the primary attacks, and with Fighting synergy, better DPA than all attacks except Energy Transfer, Freezing Touch, Greater Psi Blade, Seismic Smash, Knockout Blow and Clobber. That wouldn't be balanced.

Lieutenants aren't bosses.

Maybe ranged attacks should deal less damage than melee attacks, and low-HP archetypes should be given ranged sets instead of melee sets so players have the option of fighting AVs without being in melee range. Hm... Neither. It was PEBCAK. The AV in question is actually very weak against ranged characters (at least the ones who don't teleport straight into melee range and wait to be pancaked), as he only has two ranged attacks, a middling damage blast with a 10s recharge time and a low damage cone with a 6s animation time and 3s recharge. Had the OP stayed out of melee range, he quite likely wouldn't have been defeated at all, and absolutely not in less than ~20s, because both of the AV's ranged attacks together wouldn't have been enough to drop him even with Enemies Buffed.

Brunana.

Still happening.

Master of Death had Tar Patch, Blackstar, Dark Embrace and Resistance added.

That's not new behavior. You could get up to 4 Death Mages at */x8 in regular content before. Those are from 9/9/2022.

I think I only have 3 without Infiltration.